Targets
by Ten Past Twelve
Summary: In the harsh world of the Apocalypse Archipelago, Ash Ketchum and his friends meet the enigmatic Jene family. Are they the trustworthy enemies of evil they claim to be? Or the emmisaries of destruction their enemies say they are? Rated for language.
1. Slightly Untrustworthy

**Targets**

**A Pokemon Fanfiction**

**Okay... as I am currently revamping the ENTIRE story (about ten chapters...), I would not advise going onto Chapter Two until I upload the new and improved version of that one too. Same goes for all the other chapters. By the way, if you're reading this a year after this thing's been uploaded, ignore my ramblings. That is all.**

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"Snow? No way," I said incredulously. "That has to be a Hail attack."

"It... probably is." replied the bartender, Gallant. We were the only two people currently in the bar, but that was bound to change with the weather. Sure enough, a man entered through the doorway as I asked for another refill, and he was closely followed by two others. The cheap television on a shelf behind the counter was showing a battle between two apparently well-known trainers, although I'd never heard of either of them. Not that that meant much, as I'd only recently returned from my self-imposed exile on Arahaz, the island of thieves. And asylums, although that's a completely different story. To the point, this was the first the public had seen of me, prodigious teenage trainer that I was, in over three years.

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After I had managed to defeat the Elite Four and Takuto, the paparazzi practically swamped me and my mum with reporters seven days a week. After enduring it for a month, I finally snapped and took Pikachu and Charizard with me to the most isolated, out-of-the-way, altogether obscure place I could find. The Apocalypse Archipelago, on the other side of the world from Kanto, fit the bill nicely.

In no time at all, I had a new team, and was training it on Arahaz. While there were no Gyms there, the island possessed a busy port that swarmed with trainers and coordinators. Very soon, I was involved in at least five battles a day, if not more. Pikachu got stronger than he ever could have in Isshu, Charizard was able to defeat an oversized Nidoking, and in general my training abilities increased 'exponentially', as Oak might have said. I was truly content.

Ambition lured me away from my hidey-hole, though. I knew that I couldn't return to Pallet, but there was always Isshu... Then it was decided. I was going to go to Isshu, with my team, and win the league challenge.

0

It wouldn't work. The string of digits was too long, too complex to master. The influx of sudden knowledge was too abrupt to take, and so I did what many a computer did when it's programming failed. I crashed. And doomed everyone in the base to death. Although I was frozen, though, I was still conscious- or the evaluation of it, anyway. I saw the beasts I had helped to create, and though the scenes of carnage were not all too endearing, I felt a certain kinship with the seven. We were all the results of foolhardy humans attempting to play God, the results of cruelty and cowardice. Sometimes, I wonder why the humans gave the eight of us so much power. Granted, I was supposed to be an obedient slave, but the scientists knew that the clones were telepaths. What did they expect but a rebellion when the clones learned of their creators' true intentions? Humans were so foolish.

0

I hadn't actually interacted with humans for so long. So the best way to get into practice, I thought, was to take a cruise ship. There were loads of people on them! That's how I found myself on the S.S. Maritime. The name was stupid, but the food tasted wonderful. Each of the halls was blue-carpeted, and empty husks of Shellder and Clamperl hung on the walls, alongside fancy portraits of water-related stuff. The main course of each meal was roast Kingler, although there was a separate dish for vegetarians like me.

"Attention all passengers! A hurricane has been sighted off the coast of Leppon! Return all Pokemon to their balls, and please be alert!" The captain's voice blared from a loudspeaker, which was located right next to my table, and I was almost deafened by the roar. Taking the captain's advice, I recalled most of my team except Pikachu. Then I started to wait out the storm.

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The hurricane was a hoax, of course. It was merely an excuse to get everyone to return their Pokemon- and we were sure that the target would disobey the order by leaving his Pikachu out. That way, we would be sure to find him. It didn't pan out as expected, though.

"What do you _mean_, there's a slight problem in finding him! He has a Pikachu on his head!"

"So does some other guy," Oracle excused himself.

"Get him to return it or something, then!" I retorted angrily. "Just find the damn target!"

The Lucario muttered something to himself.

"Just go," I snapped.

0

When the Lucario and the Swampert came, I knew there was a problem. "Pikachu, on my call."

My Pokemon nodded, and I turned to face the two potential attackers. Any brawl that might have started was stopped, though, by a chance wave that almost tipped the boat on it's side. Luckily, I managed to hold on to a table (that was fixed to the ground), while the two battlers were caught unawares and sailed out of a porthole. I would have cheered, but there were bigger Goldeen to fry. Like an abnormally _huge_ Gyarados rearing out of the waves where the Swampert and his friend fell into the sea.

0

"Nick, I thought you said it was a hoax," I said, straightforward and to the point.

"I did."

"So why is there a storm almost on us?"

"I lied."

"Nice to know that my allies are so trustworthy," I commented sarcastically.

He acknowledged my jibe with a nod, then said something else. "By the way, you know how I said that even if there _was_ a storm, that there would only be one?"

"Yeah..."

"I lied again," he said with the air of one talking about the weather. Well, he was, but that's beside the point.

"_What_? Why didn't you tell me sooner?" I almost screamed.

"I had a hunch that this might happen." He could have been talking about the double storm collision or my fit of hysteria, or even both. Most likely the third.

0

The water serpent tore into the aluminium exterior of the ship, ripping a massive portion of the wall from it's side. A few people were bowled heads-over-tails into the seething, boiling ocean, and a news reporter decided to comment on this, costing her valuable seconds and a cameraman.

"Pikachu, now!" I yelled, deciding to target the Gyarados rather than escape. A few other trainers were calling out their electrics, but for all we could do, we only succeeded in enraging the 'dos further and pulverising several tables and paintings with electricity. Then someone invited a Magnezone to the party. The effect was instantaneous. The ship half-sank with the sudden weight, and the Gyarados noticed this. It also didn't take kindly to being shocked with another seven thousand megavolts of electricity, or whatever the thing was ran through with, and with a mighty flick of it's tail, sent the robotic Pokemon flying. Only around two or three metres, mind, but that was certainly no mean feat. And it got extra points for hitting the Magnezone's trainer in the chest.

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"As I suspected. One of the storms is Pisces's making. The other... I'm not so sure," said Nick, once again cool as a cucumber. Don't ask me why. It's not like he could just fly away from the whole mess. As I was saying, he was totally calm, and it was too good to be an act. "At any rate, neither of them will disrupt or hinder our cunning plans."

I stared at him, mouth agape. "Neither of them will... the hell?"

"We've already found the trainer."

"How could you possibly know that? We haven't received an update in ten minutes!"

"I'm not the best bounty hunter in the Lucario Guild for nothing, you know," he said easily. "Anyhow, I'll be leaving now."

"What about my payment?" I demanded. It wasn't easy to hijack a cruiser without anybody noticing. Dammit, it isn't easy to hijack a cruiser, full stop!

"In your wallet." Frowning, I looked down at my pocket and pulled out a brown leather moneybag.

"This?"

"No, the one in your shoe. What do you _think_?"

I shrugged in reply, and checked my wallet. Sure enough, sixty or seventy thousand dollars had magically appeared in it, complete with a reciept. "You do your job well."

He grinned happily, then fell backwards out of the window, which he'd slowly been edging to all this time. Belatedly realising what had just gone down, I groaned in frustration, and looked back at my wallet. The money had vanished, leaving nothing but a bare piece of leather. A Gallade smashed through the roof of the cabin and faced me.

"_Apologies in advance. I doubt you will be in a fit state to accept them after I finish_."

0

Somehow, the Swampert and the Lucario were able to get back on to the deck.

"Pikachu! Iron Tail 'em to hell!" Although the move was generally ineffective against both of their species, my Pikachu was strong enough to hold it's own- or so I thought. Neither of them looked phased by the attack, and the Lucario yawned. The two suddenly dropped into battle crouches, arms raised. I was reminded of Jessie and James, with their constant attempts at grabbing Pikachu... but this time round they were competent. And I wasn't sure about their target, either. "Another Iron Tail, Pikachu!"

This time, the Swampert slammed his arm into my battler before it could attack, throwing it across the room and into the speakers. My electric-type was still able to continue, though, and I grinned. Until I saw that the two fighters had disappeared. And half the ship was on fire. Then I kinda got worried.

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**This is a rewrite of the original, if you haven't figured it out yet. Remember to review on your way out!**


	2. Catalyst

**Targets**

**A Pokemon fanfiction**

**This is essentially the Catalyst. Exactly what is says on the tin. Yup.**

**Note: I do not own Pokemon, and I never will. That doesn't stop me from wishing...**

* * *

Two days after the battle, and Tails still hadn't gotten over it. Of course, now she was able to explain what had happened coherently, and Ash had gathered that he had been attacked mentally by one of the other trainer's Pokemon from nearby- namely, a Gardevoir.

"So what's with you and Gardevoirs?"

_Nothing. Absolutely-_

"You always sucked at lying. So seriously, what's up with you and Gardevoirs?"

_Okay, fine. When I was younger, in my old forest, there was a tribe of my kind living on the other side, led by a troop of Gardevoirs. One day, a bunch of them attacked me, and I never forgave their kind since._

"So is that why you never wanted to evolve?"

_What do you think?_

"Why did you, then?"

_I needed to protect you, and to do that I needed the energy and powers only a Kirlia has._

"You know what? You're going to be really creepy when you become a Gardevoir."

_Keep on yapping and maybe _you _will go creepy._

* * *

I smirked as much as a reptilian dragonish creature was able to, a Smokescreen attack building in my fire stomach. The stupid Blastoise thought he was so superior, what with his shell and cannons.

"Hey, wing-boy! I'm gonna kill you halfway to Hell and back!"

"Yeah, that makes sense. Just shut up and get roasted, okay?" I loosed a powerful Flamethrower at him, directly from my Cheri Berry. Dodging it, he retaliated with a cluster of ice attacks.

"Eat ice!"

"I'd love to, but it melts before I can get close to it- whoah!" A particularly nasty Blizzard had gotten the better of me, freezing my right wing.

"Ha! Look at that, I got your wing! Now come to Blasty!"

"Dammit, I told you it melts. Now are you so desperate to get me?"

"Yeah."

"Screw off." Now I released my Smokescreen, filling the whole battlefield with acrid smog. I began belting Fire Blasts out, full speed, using my wings to cover more ground. As soon as the smoke cleared, it was pretty obvious that I had hit him. Angry purple burns cover his blue scales, and his shell was blackened with soot. His trainer was yelling commands, but by and large he was ignored by the seashore juggernaut. Nicole, my_ partner_, was just sitting on the edge of the field, idly thumbing through a grubby booklet on fashion.

Back to the battle, Fatso had given up on Blizzards and was going for the good old method of firing Hydro Pumps at me, trying vainly to knock me from the sky. Getting bored, I showed him my Overheat, and then followed it through with multiple Fire Blasts. Fatso was the last of his trainer's Pokemon, and he was also probably the best. Of course, none of his Flying- and Water-types actually struck me as good Pokemon- in fact, they hadn't struck me at all- but that was beside the point. What mattered was cracking this turtle's thick skull open like a cantaloupe. No, don't ask me if I know what that phrase means, because if I did I wouldn't be using it. The moron among morons shot an abrupt blast of water at me, which I evaporated with an Overheat, and then tried to use a Rapid Spin on me. I wasn't the guy to take crap from a turtle, so I waited until it was directly below me, then heaved a punch at the centre of it's shell. From the lack of movement and noises that came from it when it hit the ground at twenty miles an hour, I assumed that he had been K. by the attack. The other human's rude expletive confirmed that.

* * *

After walking around the length of the island, about a hundred and seventy metres, I came to the conclusion that it was a little on the small side. The only landmarks were a Pokemon Centre, and a small shop selling surfboards. As I was feeling pretty bored, I decided to buy a surfboard and (try to) surf to a nearby island, this time one with an actual population. That was when the female trainer returned, with her Charizard and a fat kid who looked like he had spent a good hour shouting non-stop.

"Hey! Ash, over here!" I frowned. I didn't remember telling anybody my name, except that guy who ran the hotel on Burnisia- and the two islands were pretty far apart.

"What the-"

"I didn't realise you'd stay here!"

"Yeah, I was trying to get a surfboard."

"Nice, you surf?"

"No." The girl seemed bemused by this, so I elaborated. "My Poliwhirl will do the real surfing, I'll just hang on." She nodded, still clearly confused. Then she brightened.  
"Hey, I have a Poliwhirl!" I almost groaned. Idiot she may be, but her Pokemon were amazingly potent, and I didn't really fancy another battle with her- wait, that fat kid was Morrison! He clearly didn't recognise me, but I still didn't want to lose face in front of my one-time rival.

"Sure, let's do this."

Doing that fancy invisible Pokeball trick again, a menacing-looking Poliwhirl emerged from her hand and cracked it's knuckles. I went with impulse and summoned Pikachu.

"Poli, use Manoeuvre!" Great, she was speaking in code now. Just what I needed, some kind of-

"Whoah!" A Hydro Pump soared through the air, landing squarely on Pikachu's face and propelling him into the sea. "Pi, try and draw him into the water and shock him there!"

"Clearly incompetent. Shouting commands to his Pokemon that his foes can clearly here- Nicole, what are you doing here?" A boy who looked like an exact copy of the girl had just randomly appeared, leading me to wonder who exactly these two were. The girl in question just grinned, even as a beam of ice arched from her battler's hand and froze the water around Pikachu in place.

"I win."

"No duh," her brother snorted, and I guessed that he was rolling his eyes underneath his cool sunglasses, "He went down without landing a hit. And to think-" Suddenly he stopped, inexplicably and without reason. Well actually it was because his sister, Nicole or whatever it was, punched him in the side of the head. But that didn't seem to have any reason behind it either. Seeing as I didn't know what to say, I just settled with a confused frown.

"Right, we'll just be going now..."

"Wait, can I get your number or something?" I called after them.

Nicole suddenly froze up and turned around slowly, even as she held her brother in a stranglehold. "Why?"

"Well, I was thinking we could have a rematch some time?" At that, she relaxed.

"Sure- here's my card." She tossed a white piece of plastic at me, which I caught at the tips of my fingers. Then she continued dragging her brother up to the roof of the Pokecentre, at which point I neglected to watch them any further. Instead, I glanced down at my card.

**Nicole and Nicholas Jene**

**The Mercenary Twins!**

**Contact at 6724 31442**

Below that was a strange mark.

So I'd just battled with a mercenary and survived? Okay... this had to be a hoax. _But maybe it's not, Ash. Remember the Gardevoir? Tails couldn't have been lying..._

"Shut up, Tails"

_How did you know it was me?_

"Kinda hard not to know, rubbing it in like that."

_Arrogant human... huh._ So concerned with his his half-thought conversation was Ash, he missed twin pairs of eyes staring at him from a bush. One was a deep, knowing lilac. The other, a blazing, terrifying scarlet, with the same unpredictable flickering of a flame. The owners? Twin mercenaries.

* * *

**Okay, so I kinda let the cat out of the bag on the last sentence... so what? You had to find out some time, and there's still the mystery of why they're on the island in the first place...**


	3. Alibis and Islands

Targets

**A Pokemon Fanfiction**

**In this chapter, we see a darker side to the female trainer earlier, as well as an old face. And Ash makes a stupid decision to explore some islands. Because we felt like making him do that.**

* * *

_The human condition... so many things can go wrong, so many different things. Your cells might make a critical error in it's genetic programming, suddenly becoming cancerous, or worse... Every day, you might have a sudden heart attack, or accidentally kill yourself. Even in bed, or at home, there are all manners of potential killers, ranging from knives in the kitchen to acidic bleaches and detergents. So many things that can kill you, that can wipe you, your memories, your whole being off the face of the Earth... The entire human race is gearing towards a planet-wide extinction, as pollutants trap heat in the air and force the world to deteriorate. Even as people waste their time and energy discussing the matter, animals are extincted, on an almost daily basis. But humanity will pull through. Have you ever paused to wonder how our ancient ancestors ever survived in the first place, in a world full of unknown and very potent dangers? A world that Man had never even guessed existed? Humans are weak, we always will be. Even in our minds, emotions make us boringly predictable, the illusions of Love and Hate flitting across our judgement, causing fatal mistakes. But the one thing that will keep us alive is our tendency to group together. You look at apes in the wild; they will stay together but they lack the ambitious drive that can and will protect them almost indefinitely, so while they are strong, they will not fight. Take a pack of wolves in the forest- though they are quite ambitious, they lack the intelligence and capacity to communicate, plan, learn, and predict as efficiently as mankind can. They will not move forward either. It's these three tendencies- grouping, ambition, and exploration- that will see humans through. Imagine what would happen if we took that principle and took the three to a whole new level- it would be a super-race! Nigh unkillable, extraordinary in every respect. The ultimate race._

* * *

"Ow!" This was the third time that day that the stupid card had stabbed me in the back. "Stupid card." After having canoed my way back to civilisation, in the form of the Isle of Arahaz, I had made a spur-of-the-moment decision to hire a boat to Apocalypse, the mainland.

"So we'll be headin' round these islands, an' straigh' to the mainland from there onwar's. Any questions?" the skipper of the boat, a burly man named March, asked his passengers; yours truly, a strange person in a hooded cloak, and a tough-looking girl from Loyonsia Island. I put my hand in the air. "Yes?"

"Why are we going around those islands? It seems much more direct to cut straight through them, to me."

"Well, m'good sir, we sailors are deeply superstituous and the like. A good year ago, one of me good friends, a skipper like meself, got hisself lost in a naval battle roundabout those parts. 'Bout six months ago, this mate of mine turns up in a pub down on Burnua, an' he can't remember how he got there. Tha's not the only thing. Apparently there's tales down on Leppon an' Deshir of great big gangs of powerful Pokemon hauntin' the islands. Them Pokemon can't be caught, it's like tryin' t'catch smoke, an' even if'n y'can snag one with them Pokeballs, they jus' burst out an' kill ya!" He snapped his fingers for effect. "Jus' like that!"

The cloaked man, intrigued, asked for more information. Meanwhile, the Loyonsian was gazing thoughtfully out of a porthole, and I was practically jumping out of my seat in excitement.

"March, what would you say to stopping at Deshir to allow me to traverse the islands for myself? I have undertaken such challenges before, and I would sorely enjoy observing these Pokemon you seem to hold in high regard. Indeed, I would want to so much that I am quite prepared to pay twice of my fare to you again." The cloaked man offered the skipper.

"Well, sir, I can't really say no t'that, I _do_ need t'feed me wife an' kiddies, but for the life of you's, don't throw yer life away like that. Isn't tha' right, me lad an' lassie," said March, appealing to me and Loyonsia girl.

"Actually, mate, I've been wantin' to make that offer since ya told us about this gang."

"Same here, minus the stupid accent."

"Shut up, pretty boy." snarled the girl. Looking at March, I was shocked to see him a horrible, ashen grey (no pun intended).

"Please, don'. I'm not kiddin' when I say that no-one's made it pas' the outer ring an' survived to come back out."

"Oh, in that case it's different. Triple the fare should suffice." The skipper, who had been looking slightly hopeful at the end of the cloaked man's first sentence, was now positively horrified.

"Very well, lads an' lassie. You kin have yore trip t'Deshir. But I ain't goin' no further than that, y'hear? An' I ain't coming back fer you's, either."

"Don't worry, March, I'm sure we can make our own ways back." assured the cloak guy calmly.

"Agreed!" said the girl and I simultaneously, nodding vigorously.

* * *

"So, you two, any ideas to get across the channel?" The three of us were standing right next to our great obstacle- the Deshir Channel.

"We could use water-types to cross it." I volunteered.

"I'm afraid that I do not have any water-types handy." said cloak guy.

"We could fly across, guys."

"Don't have a flying-type either."

"Well, what do you have?"

"I have a Tangela, a Rhyperior, a Raticate, a Dratini and a Magmar."

"You've come all the way from Kanto?" For some reason, the man was facing a tree before he heard my voice and turned to face me. That said, I couldn't see his face at all- it was completely shrouded in shadows.

"Yes. I thought I recognised your dialect- you hail from either Pallet or Pewter, am I correct?"

"Right, I'm a Pallet Town kinda guy."

"I used to live in Saffron City, working in the archives. I daresay you have heard of them?"

"Since you two seem to be set on talking about your homes, I guess you won't care that some girl is waving at you, pretty boy." The Loyonsian person's snappish remark jolted me out of my conversation with Cloak, and I turned in the direction that she was pointing. A path made out of flagstones... there she was, right at the end of it. The girl looked fairly small, although that was probably more due to distance than anything else, and she looked very, _very_, familiar. Pikachu picked it up before me, waggling his tail furiously.

"Pika pika! Pi, pipi!"

"Is it really?" I had long ago grown used to my Chu's speech patterns, and could recognise the different tones and combinations of 'pi' and 'ka' that he used to name my friends (and foes). "Is it really May?"

* * *

Whistling, a boy worked his way through the expansive marshes of Mire, where he and his 'family' lived. In truth, he _was_ related to them, but they rarely interacted properly, bar the boy and his sister, who were the most direct relations among them.

He was wearing a light blue tunic, and shorts in a darker shade. He went barefoot, knowing full well that the bugs of the marsh would not trouble him, and nettles hadn't a hope in hell of piercing the soles of his feet. He was, as people might say, invulnerable in this place. In the darkness of the night, he stood out like a beacon of light, but he knew that nothing would harm him on his land. The pair of sunglasses that he had filched from the mainland hid more than just eyes that shone a brilliant lilac. They hid more than vengeance and great powers. They hid darkness.

* * *

In the feeble rays of the rising sun, Nicole stood over a horrified little girl, who was barely four years old. After forcing the tyke to watch her mother tortured and killed, Nicole had obliterated the entire house and the poor child's entire life in one single stroke- namely, setting fire to some explosives that her twin had stashed underneath the house. The briefcase Nicholas had stolen from the ship had proved a veritable mine of information, displaying several of Team Rocket's agendas. It was because of a particular operation that Nicole had decided to stop by the Goldeneye residence and pay a certain Mr. R. Goldeneye a visit, before slaughtering him and everyone else in the west wing of the house. Of course, his wife then chose the moment to walk into his study and scream, thus waking up half the people in the area- a good three dozen. Fortunately, Nicole managed to salvage the situation by chaining the recently widowed woman to a door post and walking out into the street, calling out that it was nothing but a rat. Since this sort of thing had happened before, most people had let it drop. However, one annoyingly persistent person kept on bugging her until she snapped his neck right at the door of the handsome manor. She then proceeded to stick knives into the woman, tying the little girl to a chair so that she could see all of the pain Mrs. Goldeneye had to endure. Finally, after a combination of pain and horrorstruck screaming, the woman spilt out all of her information and was rewarded with a swift decapitation. Then Nicole heaved her corpse bodily at the only living Goldeneye and knocked her unconscious, allowing the murderess to untie the four-year-old and carry her to an alleyway, where they were now.

Before the girl's terrified eyes, Nicole called a Houndoom from the shadows, and rapped out several orders.

"Inferno, give the girl three severe bites and then two huge burns. Then do twice the damage to me." The Houndoom nodded smartly, and then carried out it's orders to the letter. Before long, the girl was screaming in pain, and Nicole was hard-pressed to do likewise- after all, these injuries were only minor to her. Finally, a police officer heard the two's piteous moans for help, and arrived on the scene, appropriately horrified at their appearance. Nicole had already had an alibi as well as cover story ready, which she presented to the officer at the police station, after she refused medical attention.

"Well, the Goldeneyes were old family friends, and when they heard I was in town, they asked if I could look after their daughter for the day, while her usual sitter was unavailable."  
"From our reports, the parents were immensely protective of their daughter. Why would they trust you with her?" asked the officer, a tall and imposing lady with a rapt and rather strict face. It was as if she was wearing a permanently strict expression.

"Like I said, I was an old friend of them, they probably reckoned I was trustworthy enough. Anyway, so I was going down the street when I heard this growl from behind me. I looked around, but nothing was there, and I'd heard tales about Houndoom who'd never give up the chase if you ran, and besides, I didn't want to scare little Melanie. So's I just stayed calm, and I decided that it was a Pokemon battle or something."

"I see now. So you didn't think to send out one of your own Pokemon, just in case?"

"Y'see, I, er, didn't actually, um... have any Pokemon on me." confessed Nicole, pretending to be abashed.

"Honestly? You certainly seem to be the type to be a trainer, young missie."

"I never guessed that this kind of thing would have happened. You must admit, it was highly unlikely."

"I suppose so. Well, what happened next?"

"Then I realised that there was a Houndoom following us, then I saw that there were two more. So then I just started running, but the managed to trap me in a alleyway... and you saw the damage." The officer just nodded, probably reminiscing the horrible burns that covered them, and the blood oozing out from bites.

"Well, young lady, you seem to be fine, so you may leave right now. I believe you will send word to your parents beforehand?"

"Of course, missus!" While this wasn't technically a lie, as she had spent some time writing a note to her brother and other partners, she wasn't about to tell them that she had to wound herself badly in a message. The whole thing was disguised as a normal letter, but the trained eyes of Nicholas would be able to see through it. When it got to him.

* * *

"I would never have guessed that I would see you here, Ash!"

"So then what were you doing here?"

"I was heading to a contest in Leppon which'll be taking place around two weeks from now. I registered yesterday, and right now I'm just unwinding here, on Deshir. You?"

"Long story short, I found out about some really powerful Pokemon here and decided to check it out with some other people."

"Who exactly are they?"

"We were in the middle of introducing ourselves when we saw you."

"Oh. Can I come back with you? If you don't want me to, I under-"

"What are you talking about? Of course you can come with me!" grinned Ash, glad that his old friend was taking an interest in this exploit. Well, that's what he thought, anyway. Some people just stay naive.

* * *

_The wind was bitter and freezing- it was like the Queen of Ice had a grudge against them. Strangely, Lilac couldn't feel the full extent of the cold, nor could his sister, Glacier or Turquoise. But Sunshine, Orange, and Leaf could, and so they pressed on, knowing that it was either that or a life without freedom or happiness. They were only five hours old, but they felt like they had seen everything._

_Little did they know that they had._

* * *

**Implicative penultimate paragraph, but no, we have no intentions for this to become another pathetic Advanceshipping outpost, so put those banners and ten-gallon hats down. And no, Drew isn't about to make a surprise appearance either, and neither is Misty, or Tracey, or even Paul. And while Brock and Max will appear, one of them dies about three chapters later. Horribly. Okay, fine, it's just- Wait, this isn't the place for spoilers... if you must, look at it in the guide that we may or may not be uploading some time. In the near future/50 years. Whichever suits us.**

**By the way, we live on reviews. FEED ME!**

**And you'll never see the last paragraph again, so it is _not_ a preview, or a teaser, or one of those repetitive brainteasers, okay? Do you seriously think we'd sink so low? Actually, scratch that, we probably will one of these days... yeah right, dream on/'cuz that deal ain't on. Bye for another eternity while we try to write chapter four.**


	4. Island Battles

**Targets**

**A Pokemon Fanfiction**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Pokemon. And I never will. Which sucks, because- right, let's move on, shall we?**

**Two big fights, Ash owned, what more do I need to say?**

"I say we get a raft or something of that nature and sail it to the other side!" said Craig Bull, the mysterious cloaked man.

"I already told you, no!" snapped my other friend, Maya. Just Maya, because she never liked her last name.

"How about we swim?"

"Can't swim. I _am_ blind, you know." Oh. Right. Shoot.

"So?" This one was May. The queen of Coordinators, remember?

"Do you understand the concept of _blind_?"

"Uh-huh."

"Then that's what I mean."

"You know, that doesn't really make any sense." I noted, more out of needing something to do than anything else.

"Just get out all of your psychics and we can teleport to the other side, for Arceus' sake!"

"That's an idea, Maya."

"And it's a damn good one, too! Out we go!"

Two men sat outside a sprawling compound, smoking cigarettes in front of ten-metre-thick walls and several kilometres of barbed wire. They were twin brothers, and both were recruited into the Team at a young age, taken from the mountains of Apocalypse. Now they were in the elite guard team, protecting a base from harm and infiltration. The base was called E, and it was once a cloning lab until the subjects broke free and obliterated half of it. Now the rebuilt parts served as barracks, while the older sections were highly confidential and strictly off-limits to those who weren't in on the program. It was intriguing, sure, but the twins didn't mind not knowing. As long as they were paid enough, Team Rocket could be working on a nuclear missile in there and they wouldn't breath a word to anybody.

Then again, sometimes you don't have to breath to give information.

A pair of vines scattered a strange blue powder over all of the people, plants and Pokemon in the guard tower, pausing only to break a few necks and strangle a certain guard captain. Next, they struck the radio tower, which remained intact despite all efforts to demolish it, and ripped apart several support cables and pillars like paper. Finally, they silenced all of the other guards, either strangling them, breaking their necks, or heaving them bodily off the walls the guards were sitting on.

"Excellent work, Synth." The bluish green Pokemon nodded in acknowledgement and plodded away slowly. Now, the grass-type's more agile and stealthy partners would strike. "Crown, Liz, prepare to acquire the target. Oracle, take down the inner guards, and Ken, handle the copters. Be ready for my signal." The motley assortment of Pokemon- Crown the Larvitar, Liz the Sceptile, Oracle the Lucario and Ken the Blaziken- nodded as one and scaled the walls as easily as a ladder.

In the middle of the grounds, two Houndoom stiffened and began growling. Their trainers turned followed their line of sight and gasped as they saw a rocky tail vanish around a corner. So preoccupied were they in capturing the owner of the tail, they took no notice of a large shape behind them, even as leaves on it's arm began to glow a vivid, healthy green. But it's hard not to notice when a blade of energy splits open your jugular vein and instantly kills you, and even harder when that's what happens to your master. The two Houndoom spun round, only to see the carcasses of their masters fall to the floor and a large green lizard standing on it's hind legs wave at them slowly, before smacking one of the dark-types in the face with it's palm. Now the two canines were positively snarling at Liz, providing her partner with an ideal opportunity to use a Plate-boosted Brick Break on the dogs, right where on top of their spinal cords. The two dogs crumpled, and Crown and Liz continued on their way.

While the two ninjas were making their undetected way through the complex, Oracle was taking on five Pidgeotto at once, not to mention three Machoke, a Machamp, and an ugly brute of a Snorlax, in the middle of the security lounge, while three humans- one unconscious already- sat on the sidelines, one of them trying futilely to command his Pokemon. An Aura Sphere knocked a third bird to the ground, while Oracle ducked two Focus Punches thrown at him from opposite sides. The result? The scent of roast chicken, two broken fists, and a confused Machamp. Throwing himself in between the four-armed fighting type's legs, Oracle flew to his feet in order to dodge a nasty Peck, and grabbed two of Machamp's arms from behind, twisting them until a satisfying crunch filled the room. Machamp let out a pained scream and used it's good arms to try and grab Oracle- but Oracle wasn't there any more. He was clinging to the roof, staving off the remaining two Pidgeotto with a lamp and a metal stick.

"Machamp, Focus Bla-" Ignoring his trainer, the Superpower Pokemon grabbed a desk and hurled it across the room, aiming for the Lucario. Using Psychic to slow the incoming desk, Oracle scrambled out of the way, releasing the piece of furniture when he was sure it would hit both of the birds. Now he had a brief respite to assess the situation. Somehow the three Machoke had wound up on the floor, out cold and with crushed noses. The same story with the birds, except Oracle knew what had happened that time, and the Snorlax had fallen asleep again, which left the Machamp alone. Getting to his feet on the floor, Oracle dusted himself off, sneered wickedly at the sole Pokemon, and raised his paw until it was level with his foe's face.

"Bullet Punch!" The lightning-fast attack went straight through the Machamp's skull, killing it quickly and cleanly. The perfect kill.

"These damn things are everywhere!" After carrying out Maya's great plan, we found ourselves slap bang in the middle of a literal _army_ of Pokemon, ranging from harmless little Rattata and Caterpie to an invincible Empoleon and his Skarmory friend.

"Pikachu, try to take on the Empoleon!"

"Pikapi!" The yellow rodent streaked off towards the penguin, which was holding off Craig's Tangela and his Magmar without breaking a sweat. One got the impression that he wasn't even _trying_ to deflect his foes' attacks. Meanwhile, Maya was using her fighting-type team to form a defensive bubble around her, while she kicked and punched any foes who came too close, and May was fighting alongside her Blaziken, both of them trying to hit an elusive Scyther that kept on randomly vanishing and reappearing like some kind of crazy teleporter. As for me, I was fighting hand-to-hand with a mean-looking Scizor, while Tails and Tree- my Shiftry- were trying to take down a Steelix that looked like it meant business by the way that it kept on flicking them aside with it's tail. And the fact that it was raining Dragon Breath on us all. The Scizor suddenly changed tactics, going from pelting my arms nonstop with Fury Cutter to kicking my legs out from underneath me. It was about to deal a finishing blow in the form of a Flash Cannon when help came from an unexpected quarter as the Empoleon threw Pikachu aside and fired an Ice Beam at the bug, then squawked something I didn't understand. Then a Rattata hit me on the head and I was knocked out.

**Pikachu POV;**

As soon as the Empoleon threw me aside, I landed in the path of a Rhydon that was about to flatten Craig's Rhyperior. I stood my ground, and used an Iron Tail on the thing when it got within range. Of course, all I accomplished was a bruised tail, but how many Pikachu can say that they got to use Iron Tail on a berserk Rhydon?

"Stone Edge!" shouted the aforementioned Rhyperior, directing an avalanche of small stones at the Rhydon, but it didn't do anything, a point only proven further when the Rhy smashed a grey fist into the ground and sending the earth underneath Rhyperior shooting up into the sky, and then the Rhydon turned to me. It was panting heavily, always a good sign, but then a nearby Kabutops used Mega Drain on the fallen Rhyperior, directing the energy into the Rhydon, and suddenly he wasn't panting anymore.

"Iron Tail!" His glowing tail almost caught me, but I managed to leap onto his head just in time to save myself from a horrible death. Then his head started glowing underneath me, and I just had time to squeak a terrified prayer to Arceus before he used Iron Head on a tree. It would have hurt, but the tree was vaporised by a freak lightning bolt and so Rhydon barrelled straight through it, giving me ample opportunity to leap of from his noggin and run back to fight something that didn't have such a thick skull.

**May POV;**

So now there was a son-of-a-Jynx _Zapdos_ flying around above our heads? Great. Just great. At least I wasn't the one flying up there on a giant Beautifly's back trying to defeat it. Wait- I was! Well screw you too, luck.

"Stop!" We shouldn't have been able to hear it in the middle of the magical hurricane Zapdos had summoned, but we heard it, and so did everyone else. The Rattata and other weakling nuisances mysteriously melted away, while the more powerful Pokemon simply turned to the speaker. It was a teenage boy wearing a blue shirt and some hip cuffed jeans, as far as I could see from my vantage point in the sky. He started saying something, but it wasn't like his command before, and I couldn't hear a word of it. I told Beaut to swoop lower, and as we descended towards land, I started hearing snatches of speech;

"No way, man. I am not going to-"

"You know you want to-"

"-there is not a chance in _hell_ of me-" Not very useful stuff. Plus that Zapdos was staring at me like I was dinner again.

**Admit it, that was so skills, it made you cry. It didn't? Well, it made Nicole cry! (That was because it sucked, you retard!) Ah well, if Nicole says that it sucked, then it _must _be good. Unwritten law, lads and laddesses. Well, now that I've typed it up it's a written law... (You bastard son of a bi-) Think about what you're about to say, Nikki. If we're twins, then we have the same mother. And would you want to call Mum a bi- (Okay, I think I get it.) **

**Oh, now I'm starting to monologue- (What are you talking about, it's not a monologue, there's still me!) No, since we wrote this as one, in the Authors' Notes it counts as monologue. (That is the stupidest thing I have ever heard.) I thought that was when I suggested we kill off Diamond? (Except for that.)**

**Reviews, please? The only thing that Nicole and I can agree on for more than an hour is the simple fact that WE NEED MORE REVIEWS!**

**That is all.**


	5. Converstation Heavy

**Targets**

**A Pokemon Fanfiction**

**Hello, Nicole here. After I point blank refused to let Nicholas fill up two consecutive chapters with crazy fight scenes, he retreated to his tantrum corner and started sulking, leaving me to write this chapter on my own. Which I'm thankful for. Anyhoo, here we start to see more about our weird twin mercenaries and their history. No thanks to Nicholas.**

**Disclaimer: Neither Nicholas nor myself own Pokemon, and no matter how many shooting stars we wish upon, we will never own that elusive golden bar. (Maybe you won't, but one day...) Shut up Nicholas, you will never own Pokemon.**

**Overview: A certain purple-eyed person owns Ash's companions, while Zephyr breaks the fourth wall and we hear something of great importance. Oh, and Oracle gets drunk.**

* * *

What the hell did Zero think he was doing, leading a fricking attack against the Spear _and_ the Chosen One?

"Stop!" Using telepathy, I broadcasted my message to pretty much everyone on and above the island, including Spark. Naturally, they stopped.

"Who the hell are you?" Some girl wearing a tank-top asked me as soon as I hopped on to land.

"Forget me, who the hell are _you_?" At the girl's feet, another weirdo- this one half unconscious- muttered something about never coming here again. Another guy, wearing a long tattered cloak, coughed, and I turned in his general direction. "Yeah?"

"I believe Maya asked her question first."

"Well, _I_ believe that I just saved your sorry bacon."

"You wish!" he snorted. "We would have wriggled free eventually."

"And I'm going to lay an egg tomorrow. Who are you kidding? I trained these dudes to crush any foe at all." Nice sarcastic remark, I congratulated myself. Not that it wasn't true...

"My head hurts." commented the guy on the floor. Now that I had a reason to stare at him, I realised that he was the Chosen- wait, but how come a Rattata owned him so easily? Meh, I'd probably never figure it out.

"Shut up and tell me who you lot are! I already know _you_-" I pointed at the guy on the floor, "- but the rest of you I have no clue. So save me a lot of trouble and _frigging tell me already_!"

"I'm Maya, and this guy is Craig. Now will you tell us who _you_ are?"

"No," I told her flippantly, "But you can call me Anonymous Guy for now."

"Right."

"'Now' being the three minutes I'm giving you to get the hell away from here." Ah, I love doing this. Plus Maya looked stumped.

"How do we get off this island?" Oh. So she actually comprehended in three or less seconds.

"I dunno, swim or something. Look, how did you get here?"

"Teleported." There, see? That wasn't too hard. Vaguely, I wondered why she wasn't thinking that too. "But we used our psychic types, and they're knackered from a certain fight against your Pokemon."

I hate belated epiphanies. Thus, I quickly pulled out the last resort.

"Well, if you don't leave, then I'm going to have to kill you lot."

"Ha, and how would you accomplish that? It's two against one, even without Ash in the equation." snorted Cloaked Guy. Excellent, the man was falling straight into my trap.

"What if we counted Zero and Arrow?" Said Empoleon and Skarmory clanked their metallic hides menacingly, and I smirked. The two gulped nervously, and I pulled out my cunning weapon. "Of course, you can stay here for a while. If you agree to a little bet."

"I don't gamble." said Craig immediately.

"Shut up. If you two agree to pit two of your Pokemon against two of my Pokemon tomorrow, then you may stay at my... place... tonight. Now, don't agree yet," I cautioned them, a smirk practically etched in on my face, "Because I haven't given you the twist yet. Win, and you four get to leave these islands- in fact, I'll even escort you lot out. But lose... and Ash and May die."

"No way! No way man, I am not going to risk Ash and May's life just so the four of us can escape." snarled Craig.

"I don't know... it would beat getting killed right here and now by these guys," pointed out Maya, "And we actually stand a chance, if it's a battle."

"Yes, you know that you want to battle against me, as well," I purred. Don't ask me how I knew, that'll reveal itself later.

"Look, there is not a chance in _hell_ of me risking a couple of peoples' lives on a stupid battle."

"Ah. So it's nobility, is it? Well, there _is_ an alternative," I said, "But you probably wouldn't like it, because it's really just putting the girl flying on a bug behind me and Ash in the same position as you two." Victorious grinning cloaked their faces. Closely followed by shock and horror as they processed my words. I love the human face, it makes this stupid rumour spreading so worth it.

"We'll do it." While I was savouring the almost comic tragedy on Maya and Craig's faces, Ash had managed to haul himself up using a nearby vine. And had seemed to have heard every word of our conversation-turned-death threat, by the way he had accepted my terms. I turned around to face the girl behind me, and said, "Do you think that you can win a double battle with your friends' lives on the line?" She nodded curtly, and I clapped my hands.

"Right, you guys should follow me. Someone should fill Butterfly Girl on the details while we're heading to my place." As I headed to my faithful ship, I wondered why they didn't show their surprise when I revealed my knowledge of May.

* * *

Oracle patted the seat next to him, before seeming to remember that I was a quadruped and therefore incapable of sitting in a chair like a human.

"Oops. Right, you want a beer?"

"Oracle, you know that beer is potentially lethal to my species."

"So?" It was one of _those_ days then. When my partner got so drunk that he couldn't walk two metres in a straight line. Luna chuckled, obviously reading my thoughts. Beside us, the Lucario slid from his chair and into a heap on the floor, snoring.

"_Don't worry, he'll have the mater and pater of all hangovers when he wakes up. That'll keep him in bed for at least two days._" The Gardevoir was clearly abusing her telepathy, allowing her to eat and talk at the same time. Like most of my teammates, she was celebrating another victory over Team Rocket, sipping from a bottle of wine and munching slowly on a shiny red apple. Only Zero was still training, and that was probably just because he had played no part in the recent attack and so felt that he had no right to celebrate. The idiot.

"_I guess you're right, but then again, he is the best agent that the Captain has._"  
"I wonder why he wasn't chosen for that task?"

"It's obvious, isn't it?" Liz was walking over to us; like me, she was unable to digest large amounts of alcohol and so was drinking from a cup of the nectar that our Captain was so fond of. "That was a stealth mission. Zero might be adept at techniques that can cloak himself like Mist and Blizzard, but it was a clear night and so he was essentially useless in that task." At our feet, Oracle threw up noisily on the floor, earning looks of disgust from the lower agents.

* * *

We were having a party in the middle of the night in some huge cave or the other simply because it was fun. At least, that's what I figured. Synth and Luna were adamant that it was merely to celebrate a triumph against the evil of Team Rocket, but then why weren't Zero, Arrow or even Drill there? Put bluntly, neither of those three could have fun, and so they were on patrol duty. Again. Clash, Flare, and Draco were here too, and they hadn't played any part at all in retrieving the file. Neither had I, now that I came to think of it. Zephyr here, in case you didn't figure already. And I was burning off beer a gallon a minute!

"One of these days, I'm going to try and figure out where the Captain gets all of this beer. In the meantime-" Ken hiccuped loudly, nicely accentuating his point. Since he didn't have a nice tail flame to speed up his metabolism, he was already half-drunk- mind you, he was still faring a lot better than some of the others. I'd heard that Oracle had already collapsed, and Luna's brother Sol was following him, guzzling whiskey at what had to be an unhealthy rate.

I expect you'd like to know who- and what- the hell Clash, Flare and Draco are. Well, the four of us make up a part of the Elites, the most powerful players in our Captain's arsenal. As well as us, there's Zero and Luna, probably the most powerful of the team, Sol, Ken, Crown, Oracle, Synth, and Arrow. Then there's this Swampert called Swamp, his best friend Liz, and Drill, this Rhydon that can take any attack and hurl it right back at you- except Zero's bizarre Blizzards that can even freeze me. It was weird, feeling the cold bite of winter when I'd never felt anything but heat before then. On with the list, we have _the_ Zapdos, herald of storms and king of thunder. While serving under the Captain, he's content with being called Spark, like that Articuno on Kiljaro Island likes the name Shard, but when he's chilling out or doing whatever legendaries do to relax, he prefers the name Zap for some stupid reason. Probably something to do with ego, like all of those prats in charge. After that, we have an Ampharos called Amp who is almost literally a speed demon, but his defining characteristic is his crazy electricity levels. According to Synth, he managed to run over eight _billion_ volts through a house, and he practically vaporised the neighbourhood power grid in the process. But probably a lot faster than Amp is Stryke, this awesome Scyther who can literally run on water and can easily deal with anyone that's on the ground or underwater. Apparently he was trained in an extremely similar way as the ninjas of Old Deshir, but unlike them, he was also given underwater training simply because he could hold his breath for an hour.

"Zephyr, what the hell are you drinking? Single malt beer? No way," smirked Inferno, glad to finally have been able to top me. Until I smiled roguishly and asked him how many litres of his Burnuan Wine he'd had so far.

"Only three? Come off it, I'm on litre fifty now." That wiped that stupid grin off his face faster than it took Zero to wipe out an Infernape. Back to the members of our little team- think I missed out Inferno and Crux, although those guys are slightly out of it in their heads- one of them is an insufferable showoff, and the other is a vicious recluse. Who lives in a cave and attacks anyone in a two-hundred metre radius, except for Inferno and probably Zero, not that the latter would ever even consider travelling to Crux's island. And then we have the vaguely insane Infernape (Mach) who lives with an also crazy Salamence (Sally) and a Dragonite (who calls himself Knight) in this cave only accessible from the water. Don't ask me how Mach does it, or even think about asking the man himself, unless I really hate you. Yeah, if you gather that I don't like you at all, go and do me a favour by riling up good old Mach. Right, on with the Elites. At long last, we've reached the end- namely, a Garchomp called Bite, a Jolteon called Shock, and a Flareon called Blaze. The three of them are the best pranksters ever, and I remember once that they pulled off a stunt that involved rigging a bowl of punch with custard pies. Oracle tried some of the punch, and then he was suddenly dripping with custard cream. Hilarious, I tell you.

And then below the Elites, we have lower agents, like the serpents Pisces and Mineral, a Gyarados and Steelix respectively. That lot aren't as powerful as us Elites, but there are more of them and they have a few nice tricks up their sleeves. And after the lowers, there are the nameless. The nameless agents are really just the cannon fodder, the expendables. In short, they suck. They're the Rattata, Pidgeotto, and generally the weaklings, and while there are thousands upon thousands of them, it's easier to take one than to lift a finger.

Of course, we also have the Captain and his (dysfunctional) family, who are all at least fifty times stronger than Luna in her prime, and that's no hyperbole. They have weird skills, but I'm not going to spoil the surprise for you- after all, we _did_ go to all the trouble of writing this fricking thing!

* * *

The Captain had been unusually quiet during the boat trip. He'd just asked the younger male a few questions, then told him a few tall tales, and then did the same with the females. He didn't seem to like the older male, but that wasn't enough reason for him to be pensive to the point that he had asked me to steer. I had tightly reminded him that my claws were ill-suited to manipulating a tiller, and so he had asked a nearby Machoke to instead, until I reminded him that a Machoke's crude hand would probably crush the wooden device. After asking several ridiculous candidates to steer, I had decided to take matters into my own claws and assigned a Charmeleon in my patrol to the tiller.

My Captain's history was short but bloody, and so he had made up another one to tell his acquaintances that was far less painful than the real one. I'd like to tell you the real story, but it's a story for another night. Instead, I shall tell you his cover story.

Once, on Crag Rock, two children were making their way to the famed temple of Articuno on the highest point of the island. However, they were accosted by the nefarious Bloody Jack on their way, and taken as captives for ransom. Unfortunately for the two, their parents had been killed by the parent mere hours before he had found the children, and so they found themselves in a difficult, not to mention perilous, position. As luck would have it, the ship of the pirate was dashed upon a shallow reef within a fortnight, and the twins- the Captain and his sister- were washed up on the gang-infested island of Arahaz. They quickly found themselves in a bounty hunter circle, right up with the best of them, by using their unnatural gifts to their advantage. Along the way, they had gained control of a number of powerful Pokemon, who they started using to assist in missions, and eventually they were the masters of a number of small islands near to Deshir and Leppon, thanks to years of accumulated cash and influence.

It was these islands that we were traversing now, and it was these islands that I had been born on- and been taken away from.

* * *

**How'd ya like it? The drunk scene with Oracle was entirely Nicholas' idea, thank God, so he gets all credit/flaming for it. And now a death threat- er, I mean message- from our (questionable) sponsors...**

**Please review this piece of literature, no matter how horrible you found it. If you don't, then we will hunt you down, creep into your bedroom under the cover of night, and either kill you or horribly maim you... whichever hurts more.**

**Maybe we might have to find some new sponsors...**

**Bye! For now...**


	6. Lazy Battler

**Targets**

**A Pokemon Fanfiction**

**I was going to call this "The Fight", but it sounded stupid... So of course I ended up calling it Lazy Battler! Yeah, Nicole here (again), since Nicholas is on some camping trip or the other on some island, with some friends. And I'm stuck at home because it's raining again. Rain, come down; So we can't skip, around.**

**Disclaimer: I do not, and never will, own Pokemon, nor do I own the copyrighted characters of Ash Ketchum, May Whatever, or Pikachu. However, I do own Craig and Maya... actually, no, Nicholas made them.**

**Overview: May and Ash battle with Anonymous Guy, who shows off his poker face, and... what more do I need to say? Oh, yeah, and a new character goes in with a bang. Involving a spectacular boat collision and some Boat Fu. Again, all Nicholas' idea.**

* * *

"Come on out, Tails!" The Kirlia flew from her ball, having already learnt from my mind what was going on. "It looks like our foes are taking a little while to get here, eh?"

"_Actually, they're just around that corner._"

"Oh." A little put out, I turned to the said corner, and was surprised to find that Purple-eyes was flanked by the Empoleon from the night before and a Gardevoir.

"Bring it on, boys and girls! Zero, Luna, attack!" May and her Blaziken reacted swiftly to the sudden onslaught, the fire-type erecting a wall of flames to negate the shards of ice flying in their general direction.

"Tails, help Blaziken out!" While May's Pokemon had been distracted by the Empoleon, our other foe had conjured up a sturdy barrier to protect herself, as Tails found out when she ran headlong into it by accident. Acting on some unseen signal, the penguin spun around one-hundred-and-eighty degrees and a psychic pulse knocked both Tails and Blaziken backwards. Of course, the Empoleon must have been distracting our fighters in order to give his ally time to attack! I glanced over at the other trainer, and gasped when I saw that he was lying on his back underneath a sunshade outside the crude concrete pitch, almost as if he was asleep. Knowing him, he probably was.

* * *

Stupid kid, trying to best me in battle. Still, he was doing pretty well, compared to everyone else who went up against any of my unorthodox battle skills. The idea was that Luna would compliment Zero's powers by teleporting him and his attacks around the arena. However, she kept trying to 'help', by mentally pulverising the Kirlia every time her back was turned.

"_Look, just stop, okay?I know you don't like her, but this is getting ridiculous!_"

"_Well sorry, Captain, but I haven't used Confusion this way since last month!_"

As she said that, the Blaziken tried yet again to use Blaze Kick on Zero's chest. Unfortunately for the fire-type, Luna didn't bother to teleport Zero away, and so there was a grating sound as our teammate somehow snapped his foe's leg. Even without opening my eyes, that was evident, probably because the Blaziken was swearing loudly enough to annoy even Diamond, although in the heat of the day she can be a little irritable.

"What is this racket?" The frosty girl glided down the old stone stairs as I opened my eyes, her white-blond hair faintly glowing in the sunlight.

"Some Blaziken or the other broke his leg, and-"

"Blaziken didn't bloody break his leg, your bloody Empoleon broke it for him!" In tears now, May glared at me and Diamond hatefully. I opened my mouth to try and solve this without resorting to a loud and insulting argument. Unfortunately, Diamond spoke first.

"Shut up, girl. You hardly know what you're dealing with." Stupid psychopath, always having to ruin my diplomatic efforts.

"Right. Should we just consider it a one on one now, between Luna and Tails?" I said. Ash shrugged, and May just tried to look furious.

"Sure." Trust Ash to mess up the answer. The idea was that they forfeited and so were separated from each other, thus furthering our plans. Moron.

"_Captain, what do I do?_"

"_Take the Spear down, and I'll target Chosen Boy._" A bolt of dark energy flew from my hands, smashing straight into Ash. May gasped, still cradling her chicken, then turned immediately to face Luna. Behind her, Zero pushed Diamond away from the action. Powerful she may be, but she didn't understand the concept of take them alive. No sarcasm intended.

* * *

I woke up, groaning and feeling slightly seasick. _Where the hell was I?_ Far as I could see, there was a man wearing a red shirt and jeans standing at a steering wheel of some sort, a carpeted floor, and the floor was _moving_. Right, and there were some odd looking ledges, that resembled walls in a way, except for the fact that the ones in leaning into each other at one of the ends were topped with see-through panels. Behind me, Pikachu was out cold in an ice box filled with Magikarp.

"Mate, you're onboard the Starling Speedster, fastest boat you'll ever see!" I ignored the fact that he had somehow read my mind and instead stuck my head over a ledge, letting out some much-unneeded vomit. When I'd done puking my guts out, I turned to the guy at what I now realised was the tiller.

"How did I get- actually, that can wait for later. Who in the name of Mew are you?"

"Name's Ruby."

"Ruby who?"

"Just Ruby." He had turned to me when he had told me where I was, and something about his face had unnerved me right off. It wasn't until I asked his name that I figured it out.

"Your eyes. They're neon green."

"Yeah. I was wondering when you'd point that out."

"And you've been in the wars." He was heavily scarred, his huge hands made mainly out of scar tissue and whatnot. Most of them seemed to have been inflicted a year or so ago, although one or two on his arms seemed to be fresh. "What the hell happened to you?"

"Why don't you tell me what happened to you? I did just fish you out from the sea."

"You did?" I was genuinely shocked. And so I related to him my tale, ending with when Anonymous Guy turned on me.

"What the hell?" he muttered, trying to find a lie or exaggeration in my eyes. He couldn't find any, because I wasn't lying. "We'd better get you to civilisation. I know you want to find your friends," he added hastily, foreseeing my reply, "But it'd be way easier to find them if you hire some copters or boats."

I nodded, acknowledging his wisdom.

"Well, can we go back to civilis-" A huge impact rocked the boat.

"They're here." A grim smile was hovering on the edges of his lips. "Prepare for some extreme riding."

* * *

After three months of endless searching, we had found one of them! It seemed an incredible leap in our study of these creatures, our creations that mocked their creation by referring to themselves and each other as "Jenes". Now there was one right in front of us, a mere hundred metres away and still reeling from the impact from our minisub.

"Bring it on!" he yelled. Recklessly, he veered the boat in our direction, shouting curses all the way. So we'd found the kamikaze one, had we? Of course, who wouldn't have been expecting underwater mines in this kind of situation? Somehow, the speedboat landed safely, but I just glanced at the skipper and ordered him to release the Tentacruel.

The Tentacruel was a vicious beast, starved as a Tentacool and beaten often, in order to create a truly ravenous monster when it evolved and became useful to our plans. It could easily have torn our ship from the hull to the other end, but we had psychics controlling it on the ship, specifically a pair of Alakazam and several Kadabra. In other words, it wouldn't turn on us and relieve the ship of it's seaworthiness unless the boat itself was destroyed, and sometimes not even then, if the psychics were able to maintain a good enough connection to continue controlling it.

Even as I gave the orders, the clone was cutting a line through the water with his craft. My eyes widened- he was going to crash straight into the ship, and rip a hole in the Tentacruel's enclosure! It would kill him, but it would also kill us. Just the kind of reasoning a noble freedom fighter would need in order to pull off such a crazy stunt.

Instead, though, he pulled off an even crazier stunt- just as he got within five metres of our ship, he somehow flipped his boat onto the deck of our bigger craft, causing pandemonium and general panic. I was sitting in the cockpit, with a clear view of everything above deck, including the smoking wreck that was once a speedboat. Grabbing what looked like a sword, the clone hurtled towards the stairs up to where I was- the cockpit. His plan must have been to capture the ship, and then take out our fleet. Not if I had anything to do with it!

"Come on out, Mightyena and Crawdaunt!" The two dark-types emerged from their balls in a flash of red light, then surveyed me with glazed eyes. While psychic-types couldn't work their magic on them, Team Rocket had managed to devise a mind-control weapon that worked on anything with a low enough willpower. "Guard the cockpit-"

* * *

I groaned, a searing pain in my chest. Just as the boats collided, I had tried futilely to jump out of the _Speedster_, only to crash into a huge container on the bigger boat's deck. After an alarming snap and some curses, I had managed to haul myself up into the pile of twisted metal that used to be Ruby's speedboat. There, I found a still-intact radio, but to my dismay I couldn't get a signal. Ruby had run off, presumably to hijack the ship, leaving me on square one- wondering where the hell I was. Oh, and plus a badly injured chest.

* * *

Metal crowbar in hand, my cousin had smashed through the safety hatch and hurled our good friend Admin Marsh into the water, where a number of grey-brown tentacles dragged his screaming form down into the brine. Ash was trying to work a radio, not knowing that I had disabled it at least three hours ago, and May was tracking down Nicole from Arahaz. In a nutshell, _not good_. One, Ruby was being a total retard, running his new ship into pretty much everything that he came across, Rocket or not. Two, Ash was on the boat that would inevitably explode or collapse from strain, and three, May was actually succeeding in finding my sister.

Lilac eyes flashing, I descended on Ruby.

* * *

My (slightly) stolen pink phone chimed it's stupid ringtone. Again. Aside from learning how to block that bitch's calls entirely, I had to figure out how to change the ringtone, because it was seriously giving me a headache. Glancing at the caller ID, I was relieved to see that it wasn't May calling.

"Yup?"

"I have some good news and some-"

"Good first."

"Ruby captured a Rocket boat-"

"How is that _good_? For crying out-"

"Shut up and let me finish, will you?" There was a pause, and I heard a heavy blow being delivered. "Right. Good news. Ruby captured a Rocket boat, and I knocked him out to get it from him. Now the boat is on it's way to Greengrove, and so is-"

"Yeah, I know all about mister Chosen One. Your thoughts were kind of hard to ignore last night- how _did_ you get half the swear words I know, and several I didn't, into one sentence not about that bitch May?"

"What, she find you?" He sounded pretty surprised. So much for not overestimating the enemy.

"Not yet. Wait, no, there she is. You idiot, what do you think?"

"No?" he asked, sounding unsure. I sighed in exasperation.

"Idiot."

* * *

The Lugia rolled her (it's?) eyes, and snapped her somewhat silly pink phone shut.

"Arceus, someone's an idiot."

"So is someone else," I grinned, wolfishly. Her neck snapped around to the source of my voice. In this case, me.

"You have _got _to be kidding me." Scowling, she hurled a ball of white energy at me, but this time I was ready.

"Blastoise, Protect!" My battler threw up a translucent green screen in front of me, which absorbed the incoming attack.

"Sneaky. But not as sneaky as _this_!" So saying, my foe appeared behind me, then smashed both of my Pokeballs with her fists, effectively releasing Blastoise and Blaziken. Drat. Now she was standing on top of Blastoise's head, clearly unnoticed by the Shellfish Pokemon. "Aeroblast!"

I had no time to flip to the side like before, so I did what came to mind first and threw my arms up in front of my face.

Unbearable pain scorched my forearms, and the energy beam sent me flying backwards. I could smell the skin of my arms starting to burn, and my bones felt like they were being shredded in one of those razor-sharp fans in movies. However, that was far better than the alternative- an Aeroblast to the face, with a side order of blinding white light. Eyelids clamped shut, I waited for the attack to end.

* * *

"Stop screwing around and pay attention!" Liz snapped. The effects of the crazy party last night still hadn't quite faded, and now Ken and me were having a goofy sparring match while Luna occasionally hummed snatches from some lesbian song or the other.

"_What the hell? Oracle, you are so dead for thinking that!_"

"This is what I hate about you, Luna," I said as sweetly as I could, "It's literal when you say not to even think about it."

About five minutes after Luna grabbed me with her telekinetic powers and hit me against the keel of our boat- repeatedly- Liz called it to a screeching halt and demanded that the psychopath Gardevoir put me down. I almost cheered for victory when Luna, probably reading my mind again, just totally released her psychic hold on me and I fell fifteen metres to the ground. Or ship, if you want to be pedantic.

"Okay, you four, enough. This is the plan- we go right over to the ship, with Luna messing up their visual sensors so that we look like humans, and then throw things at them."

"Why are we doing this again? I mean, it can't be purely out of spite against the whole damn human race, could it?" My sarcastic skills were rewarded with a stingy backhand from the female Sceptile.

"Just keep your fat trap shut, will you?" I nearly opened my mouth to speak, but then saw that Liz had worked her foot behind my legs, and would probably trip me up- and off the ship- if I spoke another word. So, pretty cunningly I thought, I used my shaky telepathy to say three words.

"_How about telepathic speech?_" Okay, maybe that wasn't three, but it's not my fault that I never learnt to count past three.

"_Was._" Couldn't that bastard psychic keep out of my thoughts for five seconds? "_No._"

"I didn't ask for your input, Loony." Wait, did I really just say that? Now I was in for it...

* * *

**I love writing Oracle scenes, they are awesome. I think that this Lucario is so badass that he makes most others pale in comparison, except, of course, Luna. And, as you may see later, Zero and all the legendaries. But those moments of total failure make Oracle that much more awesome. Seriously, who loves Oracle? Put it in your review. Which you will write, lest you should suffer a horrible and untimely demise. (Okay, now this is going creepy... What happened to Oracle?)**

**By the way, do you or don't you think there should be a poll on favourite villain of our fanfics? I'm counting Oracle, Liz and the gang as villains because of their obvious involvement with the Captain, and if you've read Nightmares (which I somehow doubt), then Anne counts as a baddie, like the Nocturne. If you want to know why, go bug Nick about it, because for some reason he's guarding the documents associated with Nightmares like a bloody gold mine.**


	7. The Plot Thickens

**Targets**

**A Pokemon Fanfiction**

**I actually uploaded before the end of this month! Let's dig out the whiskey and celebrate!**

**Disclaimer: We do not own Pokemon. So get lost, you jerks who have nothing better to do than sue people for petty reasons.**

**Riiiight... Ash and Pikachu wind up in the middle of some desert or the other, May is turned into a Glaceon and finds out some disturbing information and Oracle... gets knocked off a _cliff_.**

0

Mouth dry (again) I sat up, wiped sand from my eyes and did a double take- _sand_? I looked around fervently, trying to work out where I was. Either a beach or a desert, and since I figured that most beaches had a shore (that was kinda the determining feature of a beach!), I guessed that I was on a desert. Unfortunately, I had no idea where this desert was. A few metres behind me, Pikachu stirred and shakily climbed to his feet. Seeing the little rodent, I suddenly looked down at my belt, hoping that all of my balls where still there (why do I feel stupid saying that?). They were, and I let out a sigh of relief. As long as my Pokemon were still with me, I was good.

"What do we do now?" I said, voicing my thoughts out loud.

"_That's a pretty good question._" piped up Tails. "_Although I don't think anyone can answer it._"

0

Every single organ, bone, and general body part in my body ached. The Aeroblast had hurt, but whatever the Lugia had fired at me afterwards was just insane. It felt like every single atom in my body was literally being rearranged, and the process was agony. At least I was alive and human. How wrong I was.

I shook my head, then took a few, unsteady steps. Something was definitely wrong here, but it took a minute to properly register. Why in Arceus' name was I walking on all fours? And my head was perpendicular to my torso, too, which was impossible. Speaking of which, something blue kept of getting in the way of my face, and the world seemed larger than it did before I got hit. What was going on?

"Hey, look at that!" A cruel-sounding voice drifted towards me, and I turned. I saw around a dozen pairs of feet a few metres ahead of me, and a strange thudding sound. "Looks like a Glaceon!"

"Catch it, boss. The 'dex says that it's a rare one."

"Go, Pokeball!" I squeezed my eyes shut, hoping for the best. To my surprise, the ball didn't even come near me, as some other being leaped in front of me and batted the ball away with their a limb.

"Get away from my Pokemon!"

"What if we don't want to?" taunted one of the pairs of feet. Opening my eyes, I saw some shoes that looked _very_ familiar to me.

"I'll make you." snarled the new voice, and I placed it as female. I also placed it as a voice to run away really quickly from. Two flashes of light and an explosion later, I stuck it on the list of voices I never wanted to hear again. Fortune was on my side though, and I came out unscathed. As soon as she turned to me, a vague question crossed my mind. What exactly did she mean when she said '_her_ Pokemon'? It didn't stay for long, though, as she started stroking my head and I made a strange purring sound. It just felt so good. Until I looked up and saw her eyes. Those crimson irises looked horribly familiar...

"Oh crap."

0

Luna used her psychic abilities to teleport a bag of groceries from the Sinnoh region on to our boat, and we spent our second morning onboard the _Shadow_ eating Oreos and chocolate.

"Hey, do you think we'll make it back to the attack on Greengrove?"

"I sure hope so, or else the Captain will call it quits!"

"_I don't think so, Ken._" At first I thought she was talking about his previous statement and I privately agreed, until I noticed that Ken had broken out into a sweat. And fire-types only ever sweated when nervous or petrified- and being threatened by a particularly vicious psychic on caffeine while stuck on the deck of a ship with no allied parties definitely made Ken petrified. So then what was Luna going on about? As Ken was lifted into the air with plenty of glowing-eyed assistance from our favourite psychic psychopath, I decided to ignore the cause and focus entirely on the consequence. Which hurt the Blaziken a lot, but he probably deserved it for thinking sick, perverted thoughts. Or whatever he was thinking that made Luna go berserk.

0

"Come on, Eclipse!" This proved to be the wrong thing to say as Ruby was pulled off his feet by an invisible force.

"Stop freaking calling me that!" snarled his cousin, lilac eyes still glowing creepily.

"Sorry, but it rubs off after hearing Sapphire and Topaz call you that for ages."

"Another reason to punch all three of you out when we finish awakening the legends!" continued the shapeshifting Ho-oh, "Now, let's go and rig those pipe things. We're setting that Madison Avenue place off first, so we're going left, right, left, left, right, right, and so on."

"In other words, you still don't know where the hell we're headed." The bell-like voice chimed in, only her distant white eyes betraying her true sinister nature.

"Shut up, Sapphire, and while you're at it," groaned the Captain, purple eyes finally dimming, "stop turning invisible and eavesdropping on every other conversation you freaking hear your name in."

0

And so, after several harsh days at sea, we found that damn clone's hideaway and Luna managed to teleport us onto the island that Mewtwo made his (reclusive) home.

"_When this crap is all over, I am seriously getting Mew to find him a real estate agent._" The psycho had a point. The cliffs on the island were freaking gigantic! Normally when I use that statement it's an exaggeration, but this time it was true. Sure, maybe Mewtwo needed his privacy, but it wasn't like he needed several damned megatonnes of rock in the form of gigantic cliffs! "_Cut the rude internal monologue and get on top of the mountain._"

Startled, I realised that Luna, Oracle and Liz had already scaled the rocky wall and were lounging around on the top of it. Quickly, I scampered up the remainder of the cliff and threw myself on to horizontal land.

"Great work, Ken, now pick yourself up and help Luna figure out where that damn clone is." Of all times and places, Oracle had to pick the island to make an insulting remark about a legendary. Stupid guy couldn't catch a break. On cue, the Lucario was thrown backwards through the air by a psychic force, and would have ended up flying of the cliff edge had it not been for Luna. She had probably already second-guessed Mewtwo and was prepared to teleport Oracle right on top of Mewtwo. Making an odd keening sound, the clone sent Oracle flying in a random direction once again. It might have just been a coincidence, or evidence that fate is cruel, but Oracle was heading in the same general direction as he had been last time. Difference was, Luna was too busy firing bursts of psychic energy at Mewtwo to bother about some stupid dog.

"_Just go save the moron!_" Luna snapped at me, before being forced to block several fireballs from her adversary. Meanwhile, Liz was searching for a decent blade of grass to use Grasswhistle with. Me? I just lazily tossed a rock into the air in front of the rapidly-soaring Lucario and made it explode, effectively blowing Oracle back on to safe land.

"You did that on purpose, didn't you?"

"Depends on how you look at it." I grinned (Well, sorta. It's pretty hard to grin with a beak).

0

After a long day of travel, Zero practically threw himself out of the water, controlling the sea to form a powerful geyser. He landed squarely outside of the North Prison, a large compound in the Arctic Circle that held countless Pokemon hostage. Run by a flock of Empoleon and their pre-evolutions, it was not a very happy place. Even less happy for Zero, who had once been an inmate at the place. Still, a mission was a mission, and he knew that at least the Stone was there, if not the whole Regi too. Time to do what the Captain affectionately referred to as 'blowing those freaking retards halfway to Hell and back'. Personally, Zero agreed that setting fire to a large amount of dynamite in the North Pole generally equated to the same thing. Remembering something, the Empoleon looked to the skies. That hotheaded Charizard was due to arrive at any second, giving his ally time to set the explosives.

"Did you hear that the base down in Salbier was attacked last night?" Two Prinplup guards had just turned a corner, forcing Zero to whip up a thick Mist to hide himself. If it had been a purely military campaign like the one in Salbier, then he wouldn't have bothered and instead would have killed the two, but in this mission, stealth was a must.

"You don't say! Who by?" asked the first one's companion, incredulous.

"Patrol boss says it was a bunch of Froslass and Glalie." replied the first Prinplup. The two had stopped, probably slacking off again, thought Zero. Until one of them turned around sharply, sending a knife flying at the Empoleon's flipper. Predictably, it bounced off with a dull ping.

"I know you're there! Come on out and fight!" Zero conceded, scaring the living daylights out of the penguins. Then it was a simple matter of using his weak psychic powers to toss the two into the ocean and letting them drown.

"Pathetic." Zephyr alighted on Zero's right, having seen the entire thing. The dragon grinned, and opened his mouth to make a wisecrack, until he saw that Zero was looking in the opposite direction.

"We have company, don't we?"

0

"What did you do to me?" the small Glaceon practically screamed at me. Well, really she was screaming at Nicole, but I was in her head at the time. Therefore, the blue ice-type was technically also throwing a tantrum in front of me, although unknowingly.

"I fired an Aeroblast at you." Even though I'd been doing this for (figurative) years, it was still a little disconcerting to hear Nicole's voice from my throat. Of course, this wasn't exactly my throat either...

"Why am I a... a _Glaceon_ then?" she shrieked. It would have hurt my ears if I wasn't able to understand her speech. As it was, a bunch of other random guys ran away, probably to leave the young girl alone with the hysterical dog-cat-fox-thing.

"You say that like it's a bad thing," I taunted her. Well, actually it was Nicole... forget it.

"It _is_! What if I get stuck like this forever! Then I'll- I'll- _What did you do to me_?"

"Already told ya."

"Why am I a Glaceon, then?" At least she'd stopped screeching like a demented parrot, although the

sudden coolness was suspicious.

"Beats me, probably some kind of self-defence mechanism."

"People don't normally go around turning in to Pokemon, you know." she replied.

"Then again, you aren't exactly normal."

0

"_Whoah! Steady there, little 'two._" said Luna, smirking. Mewtwo had just struck down Oracle with a psychic blast and was turning on Liz, while I watched events unfold from the relatively safe sanctuary of some cave mouth. It led into a pretty nice cave too, but that's another story.

"_Why have you attacked me?_" he snarled, probably something to do with insecurity and stuff. "_Tell me!_"

"_Do you trust me?_" Luna asked suddenly.

"_No! Of course not!_"

"_Why not? We could have simply killed you as you slept. We did not._" Some logic. It seemed to work though, as Mewtwo no longer had bloody murder written all over his face. He _did _have some interesting middle-finger motifs on his cheeks and forehead, but we were kind of counting on a dislike of reflections. And an obsession with showering would be nice, too. The sooner that marker got off his face, the better.

"_I still do not trust you, but I will not kill you either._" Oracle of course chose that moment to display his incredible stupidity and said something so regrettably _stupid _that it should never be put in print. But I'm going to do it anyway.

"I now proclaim you husband and wife."

"_However, I am sure that this one will not be missed._" Mewtwo seethed, furious. Luna was turning red, and Liz had doubled up in laughter. I turned tail and vanished in to the cave for another game of Spin the Zubat.

"Hold the tomato sauce, guys!"

0

So we get stuck babysitting a legendary until he wakes up from a lullaby sung (whistled) by an overgrown green gecko with yellow spots. Long story short, he wakes up and fires some strange force or the other at me.

Next thing I know, I sit up, and for some weird reason say something that has the two most powerful psychics I know slavering for my blood. Somehow I hear Ken talking about ketchup when really I should be running away- right, and you guys probably know the rest. What are you, psychics? Er... now you come to think of it, I'm not sure that I'd be surprised if you knew exactly what I'd said that had Mewtwo livid.

"Let's take this logically and rationally, guys!" I dodged another fireball and realised that I was only an inch away from falling off that damn cliff- again.

"_The time for talking is over! You have insulted me for the last time, you-_"

"_What's so insulting about a marriage between _us_, huh?_" Perfect. And Mewtwo also looked embarrassed now.

"_Nothing, it's just... er... um... er... yeah._" Mewtwo was scratching the back of his head. Now for my finishing move.

"Hey, Luna, when are we going to tell him about- you know..." I deliberately trailed off into nothingness, making the sentence artfully ambiguous. Luna would assume one thing, Mewtwo another. Pure genius.

"_Uh... er... mm... so..._" And now Luna thought that he was blushing because he was embarrassed of his 'behaviour'? This was awesome! Who needs mind reading when you have Aura?

0

"Let me get this straight. I wound up here, on Arahaz, because Ho-oh was too lazy to actually bother teleporting us properly and he just sent us to completely random locations in the world? And I could have actually appeared in someone's stomach? Or even worse, bladder?"

"Uh-huh."

"Ew! That is so gross!" I yelled. Not for the first time, either.

"And according to my brother, your boyfriend-"

"Stop calling him that!"

"Is somewhere in the Apocalypse Desert. With Brock."

"Brock? As in the Pewter City Gym Leader?" Lugia nodded in confirmation. "Wow."

"Not really. After all-" She suddenly stopped, and looked over her shoulder. I turned too, and saw a Scyther advancing on us.

"Miss Jene? We have found the One."

"Excellent work, Stryke. I trust you have removed his weapons?"

"All but one, Miss."

"And who might that be?" she drawled, eyes narrowing.

"The electric-type. He is already at a disadvantage to Drill and Draco, so we thought it wiser to leave him." answered the bug, not even batting an eyelid. "As well as that, the Captain has reached Greengrove."

"Liz and Luna?"

"They have gathered most of the legends. We still await the higher powers Celebi and Jirachi, as well as Arceus, Giratina, and Heatran." During this confusing exchange, I had stayed silent, but at the mention of the legendary Pokemon, I practically shrieked.

"Would you keep it down, May?" snapped Lugia irritably. "Some of us don't need to get deaf!"

"Sorry," I mumbled in reply.

0

"Oh, we're Hi-king through the des-sert, we'll make Greengrove by dawn, 'cause we're a-hi-king through the des-sert, to make Greengrove by dawn!" warbled Brock while strumming a weird banjo-like instrument. We were wandering through a deep gorge in the earth, and it's steep, rocky walls provided excellent shade from the merciless sun. Somehow he had found me crawling through the desert and had nursed me to full health in one night. Now we were heading to civilisation! I hoped. Brock had been singing his Hiking Through the Desert song for nearly eight hours now, and we still hadn't found any city- Greengrove or otherwise.

Yawning, I stretched and looked around. On my right there were some green plant things- probably some shrubs, and on my left was just rock. Turning back to the front, I gasped and looked down at my belt- a light pressure had just pushed onto my side. Seeing nothing out of the ordinary, I looked up again.

"Uh... Brock, where are you?"

"Rhy! Don!"

0

**Yes, the plot is becoming a little complex. Not to mention the revealing is a little slow. Seven chapters in, and we don't already know who wants what or why, right? But it'll reveal itself in the end. Some time.**


	8. Things Blow Up

**Targets**

**A Pokemon Fanfiction**

**Get ready for the first 'real' arc- The Desert Siege! The lookout for this chapter is pure awesome, with explosions, a new person, and even a case of Zero Sarcasm! No, it doesn't mean nobody's sarcastic.**

**A quick note; This and Chapter Ten will be set in the same time slot, while Chapter Nine will be set before the two and Chapter Eleven will be set after all three, in the immediate future. Just to avoid confusion in the future.**

**Oh, and no Ash for this chapter.**

**Disclaimer: Look at it this way. If I owned the Pokemon series, then rather than writing this, I'd be writing screenplays with the same plot for the show. Happy?**

0

Mewtwo had finally calmed down enough to take down those evil psychic barriers and teleport us to Greengrove City on the mainland of Apocalypse. Where we left him for the Captain and Mew to deal with. Zero had somehow made it to Greengrove too, while Draco and Drill were still somewhere in the desert up north, 'taking care of something'.

"Okay, to your stations! Zero, you go with Oracle, Luna, you're with Liz, and Ken... er... stick with Spark when he gets here, okay?"

"Oh, sure, stick me with the thunder chicken," muttered the Blaziken mutinously. "It doesn't matter that he thinks I'm a stuffed toy!"

0

"Let's get it started!" I pawed my radio, which had just given the orders to detonate... uh...

"Where the hell is this bomb supposed to be?" I asked Zero.

"Madison Avenue."

"So, where the hell are _we_?" I continued, fearing the worst. When he didn't reply, I groaned. "Why me?"

The explosion ripped through the street, hurling me through the air and into a conveniently located open window. Feet first. After crashing through a few walls, I realised that it wasn't so convenient after all- if I'd had to have gone through a thick sheet of glass, most of my momentum would have been lost. Which was a pretty good thing, if I didn't want to be flying through walls and potted plants and things. I crashed into a table, scaring the living daylights out of some person who was trying to eat a cheese sandwich. He or she- I didn't really register- screamed and hurled some red and white balls at the floor. Three flashes of red light later, I had spots in my eyes and there were some ugly creatures standing in front of me.

"Dustox, Poison Sting!" Scowling, I grabbed the stupid bug and tossed it out of another convenient window. The other two bugs- a Beedrill and some kind of purple moth thing- suddenly looked edgy, and I smirked evilly, both of my paws illuminated with glowing orbs of energy- Aura Sphere. I brought them together, and opened my mouth.

"Ready to die?" Neither of them answered, in favour of scrambling the hell out of there. Which was good, too, because my footpaws were aching. I ducked down to check them, and saw that there were chunks of pottery impaled in them. Ouch. I looked back up and noticed the human cowering behind the table. I held up all of my claws, then put them down, one by one, hoping he got the message. It seemed he did, and he followed the path his Pokemon had taken. At the same speed, and with the same degree of untidy crawling. I did some crawling of my own, and managed to get to the window that I'd flown through. Zero, as it transpired, was untouched by the blast. Stupid penguin.

"We have precisely thirteen minutes to leave this area," he said.

"Geez, let me get these splinters out of my feet first!"

"I sense Luna sixteen hundred metres away. Perhaps she will remove the offending splinters." I started walking.

0

"Wonder when Diamond's getting here," Ho-oh said in a bored tone. "And when May will stop thinking about me as Ho-oh. Just because I can turn in to a magical fire bird, it doesn't mean I'm the damn original." I ignored the jibe and stretched luxuriously on the floor. Being a Glaceon definitely had it's perks, even if I _was_ stuck with two maniacs. Who could turn into legendary birds.

"Captain, we have detonated the hospital!"

"Good. Now give me a reading on Team Rocket, Knight." My blood ran cold. They blew up a hospital? They'd killed hundreds of babies, not to mention a whole load of other people. And he'd said _good_.

"They're in confusion. They cannot figure out who's attacking them," the orange dragon replied.

"Target acquired. Prepare the units for the Sacred Fire. Get Zero, Liz, Oracle, Luna and Synth out of there, and send in Inferno and his pack."

"Understood." The Dragonite bent down to a small radio at his waist and rapped out some orders, before straightening up and saying, "Zero and Oracle have nearly made it to the docks. We don't have a boat."

"That's okay. What do you think Zero's a water-type for?" grinned Ho-oh.

0

"What _are_ we running from?" I asked the Empoleon in front of me.

"Mewtwo. He's been given orders to attack everything with fire," he replied brusquely, never once pausing.

"Oh." As the words sunk in, I noticed that quite a lot of the buildings had caught fire. "Um, Zero? I think we're heading _towards_ Mewtwo."

"We need to reach the docks. The simplest way is down that road over there." Zero told me.

"But... the fire! You might not care about it, with your water attacks and all, but I have a weakness to it!" _This _made Zero stop.

"Get on my back." Wait, what? "Get on my back. I'm going to use Aqua Jet to get through the street."

"I should have kept my big mouth shut," I sighed, before clambering onto the penguin's back.

0

The Centre was a few hundred metres away from us. Jericho and I glanced at each other, and cheered as one. We'd made it through Route 214 at last. In front of us, the huge gate to Veilstone City stood like a sleeping Snorlax and opened to admit us after we procured our badge cases.

"Welcome to Veilstone, boys!" said the guard on duty, earning a dirty glare from my companion.

"Er, she's a girl," I said by way of explanation. The guard apologised to Jericho, who appeared only slightly mollified, and we stepped through the heavy stone portcullis together.

"So, where do we head now?" I asked the now-ranting Jericho. She closed her mouth, looked at me with her head cocked, and replied.

"The Pokemon Centre, genius. We need to heal up our teams!"

"Last time _I_ said that, someone punched me in the gut," I retorted, earning a glare from her.

"I might do it again if you don't shut up!" Predictably, she _did_ punch me on the way to the orange-topped building, and I was doubled over for the rest of the mercifully short journey.

0

At the counter of the Centre, I placed the balls of my team into an aluminium tray while still holding my bruised stomach, earning odd looks from just about everyone in the (large) room. I slotted it into the gap thing and patiently tapped my right foot on the floor while the spotless white machine beeped and hummed. Thirty-two taps and a half later, the machine rumbled and spat out the tray.

"Your team has been restored to full health! Bye!" leered the pink-haired woman operating the machine. Actually, she probably wasn't really aiming to leer, but that's what it came across as to me. Why they call someone that creepy Nurse _Joy_ is beyond me. Although this time I opted not to tell her that.

0

About an hour later, I was down in the mess hall with about fifty other trainers, all of us jockeying for the best portion of steaming hot spaghetti. When that small drama had been settled by formidable cooks wielding spatulas like freaking swords, another one was started when two trainers tried to sit on the same seat at the same time. Then they decided to battle over it. In the middle of a room full of starving and excitable trainers.

"Come on out, Giza!" A Sandslash that looked like it hadn't eaten in a week ambled out from it's ball, but saw the mountain of pasta right next to it and jumped straight in to it, practically devouring the Italian delicacy and totally ignoring it's trainer's orders.

"Is that all got? A starved porcupine? Ha! This'll be a cinch, Fang!" A Golbat circling the rafters up above us floated downwards and attempted a smirk, instead coming off as an impression of someone with toothache or something. Predictably, it then zoned in on some Skarmory that was preening itself on a table and hurtled towards it. "Fang! Stop! Bad boy! Come back here!"

"What _are_ they doing?" Jericho leaned across the table, pasta dropping from her mouth every time it opened.

"Looks like they're dancing or something," I answered. The two were indeed orbiting in the air, although when I finished my sentence it had become a lot more aggressive.

"No, they're sizing each other up," contradicted a guy next to me, a strand of spaghetti dangling from his mouth as the two bird things circled each other far above our heads. I shrugged, then turned back to my food. After almost inhaling several mouthfuls of meatballs and special sauce, I realised that there wasn't any pasta left on my plate. Now that I looked, no-one on the entire table had any pasta still on their plates. As I considered this phenomenon, the Sandslash from before somehow caught my eye and somehow winked, which in turn somehow prompted me to look up- just in time to witness all of the birds up on the ceiling somehow plummet to the floor.

"Whoah!" yelled Jericho as a Starly somehow fell straight into her plate and sent a spray of sauce all over her. I felt like shouting the same thing, except my mouth was full and I had actual table manners. And maybe the fact that there wasn't any pigeon in my meatballs could have come into play.

0

While the cleaners swept up the mess in the now-aptly-named mess hall, we trainers had been kicked out of the eating room and driven into our suites. To keep with tradition, again every single other bunk in my room was filled with people who warned me that they snored. Fortunately, they were good company when awake and we spent a good hour discussing stuff. Eventually, someone took the conversation to the Pokemon out in Veilstone.

"One of my friends says that there's a fossil Pokemon out there," said a scrawny kid who'd introduced himself as Reddy Borsche.

"What, like Relicanth?" I asked him, confused.

"No, no, like hundred million years ago fossil," he explained.

Another guy, a lanky beanpole called Alex, caught on. "Oh, like Cranidos and that other one?"

"I _think_ so. Only my friend says that it's a lot different from them."

"Wow. That'd be a nice catch," I whistled.

"Yeah. But it's probably too strong for trainers like _us_ to catch."

"What d'you mean, Reddy?" asked the rest of us.

He paused before answering. "You know that fossils are always smaller than people?" We all murmured in confirmation. "People are sayin' that this fossil isn't."

0

"Deceit! Cunning!" The twin Ninjask flitted to their master's side. "Have the crew understand that they answer to me." The mute bugs bobbed their bodies, lacking a proper neck to nod with, then returned to their perches inside the masthead of the large boat. Until recently, the boat had been a tourist ferry, transporting people from the islands to other islands as well as the mainland. One night, strangely, the ferry deviated from it's normal route and veered too closely to Fey Island for it's owners' liking, prompting an attack. If it had been another boat, then it would have just been chased away by the Gyarados that inhabited the waters in between and around the Islands. However, the skipper of this boat was a liability to the Jenes, and they expected the worst, which was why the boat that he had once steered was now crewed by a veritable army of Pokemon. That were now mutinying against it's Scyther captain and his deputies.

0

**Okay, short chapter, but now we've got a new character on the scene. Somehow he has something to do with the attack on Greengrove. Quick reminder, this chapter is set _after _Chapter Nine.**


	9. Coming Storm

**Targets**

**A Pokemon Fanfiction**

**Yo, it's Nicholas again. And this is going to be a good chapter, trust me. Just a reminder- this chapter is set _before_ chapter eight, and starts from where chapter seven left off- Ash squaring off against something.**

**Disclaimer; I do not own Pokemon or the characters of Ash and May. The plot is my own.**

**Apologies for not uploading in more than two weeks, but I was busy with schoolwork and trying to get all my pseudo-legendaries to level 100 on Diamond. I failed, but...**

0

The grey beast growled quietly, pawing the earth with it's foot.

"Where's Brock? The guy with me..." I trailed off, noticing one of Brock's shoes in it's chair-sized claws. It had my friend, did it? Not for long! I roared challengingly, and rushed to the behemoth and started punching every inch of it's knee that I could reach.

"Take some of this! And that! How'd ya like _this_, you monster! Yeah, and take that!" I rambled angrily, sure that I could wear it down. That was, until the Rhydon reached down with it's free arm and tapped me on the shoulder. Suddenly, my left arm seized up, and it dropped to my side limply. I stared at my limb speechlessly for a few seconds, before noticing that the Rhydon was swinging it's arm back, as if in preparation for a punch. I tried to throw myself out of the way, but the Pokemon still managed to catch me in the chest and my injured collarbone screamed in protest. Another punch and I was flying backwards into a rock wall. Pikachu yelled something, sparks flying from his cheeks, and charged the Rhydon while I struggled to lift my head from the sandy floor.

A strange singing sound entered my ears and I shook my head, sure that it was a hallucination. A few metres away, the Rhydon was standing stock still while Pikachu battered away at it with his Iron Tail attack. The singing persisted, and I looked around nervously. There didn't seem to be a source, but this canyon had a slight echo, so that meant nothing. A light breeze tickled my nose, and despite the battle raging not ten metres away from me, I laughed.

"Go, Pump!" I shouted, expecting a flash of light and my frog-like Pokemon to leap from my belt. I frowned and looked down to my waist. My Pokeballs were still there...

"_We have removed your weapons for safekeeping. I would advise that you do not search for them._"

My head whipped around, and I caught sight of a green thing that vanished almost as soon as I saw it. "Wait... Scyther can't use telepathy."

"_That was not me._"

"Oh." Pikachu soared through the air for the third time, and cracked his skull on the rocky wall. Ignoring the strange voice, I sprinted for him, and picked up his lifeless form, before recalling that he'd been fighting a Rhydon. The Rhydon in question lifted it's fist once again, and I fell to the floor to avoid the inevitable blow, but at the last second a Gallade stepped from a boulder and said something to my attacker, and the creature reluctantly let his fist swing to his side.

Then the two vanished, leaving me with an unconscious Pikachu and a bad arm.

0

Zephyr flapped his wings vigorously, creating a powerful gust that blew away several of the Prinplup and Empoleon that were using Hydro Pump and Bubblebeam on him. Next to him, Zero wreaked havoc among the ranks of his foes with Earthquake and Blizzard, as well as shooting geysers of water at his opponents at every opportunity. Even without Luna to cover him as she usually did, Zero was still an unbeatable behemoth in the Arctic.

"Where did Sol vanish off to?" yelled the Charizard. "I thought he was helping us get the- whoops- Rock!" Another Prinplup was thrown towards his brethren with a powerful Fire Punch from the orange dragon as he spoke.

"He will be here in precisely thirty-two seconds!" said Zero, neatly decapitating a nearby Empoleon guard.

Zephyr grimaced. "That's too long."

"Watch." Even as the blue penguin uttered the single word, a huge wave reared from the endless expanse of blue sea behind their enemies. "You may want to take to the air."

The dragon took the sound advice and gave one last roar before shooting into the sky, just in time to avoid the tsunami that Zero had summoned with his developed powers. The horde of penguins wasn't quite so lucky, though. As the two agents of the Captain watched the army get swept away by the salty waters, a green and white figure dashed towards them- well, just Zero really, since Zephyr was still hanging around in the sky.

"_What did I miss?_"

From the air, Zephyr shouted something. "You moron, Sol!"

0

The Breloom pulled it's knife from the cadaver in front of it. Light reflected off the keen blade and the bloodstains, giving it an eerie appearance despite the harsh sunlight beating down upon the boat. Next to it, other fighting-types were lazing around on the floor of their new boat, either fiddling with interesting bits and pieces or just basking in the sun's rays. Their commander, a grumpy Scyther who spoke peculiarly, was below deck, attempting to navigate the ex-ferry to the capital of Apocalypse, and a few Gyarados escorted the boat out of their territory. Quite out of the blue, the whole craft shuddered violently, and shot forward a dozen metres before halting abruptly. A disguised trapdoor was flung open and a Gallade stepped through.

"_Where's Stryke?_" he asked, casting a disdainful eye over the motley crew. One of them, a young Machoke, gestured to the stairs that led below, earning an approving nod from the psychic, who then proceeded to the staircase and descended the wooden steps.

On the deck, the entire crew maintained an uninterested facade, but each and every one of them was straining to hear what was going on in the captain's cabin. Unfortunately for them, the entire conversation was telepathic, and so none of them could sense what was going on. They could guess, but it was a bad idea with the Scyther as captain, no matter how temporarily.

0

Dust in my mouth, I collapsed for the third time and shook my head slowly. The heat enamating from all around wasn't helping matters, and I was weak from dehydration and heaving Pikachu around. In front of me, another mirage shimmered in the desert air. This time, it was of Brock lying down not five metres away, a puddle of blood by his head. I shook my head again, but image didn't flicker and die like the other ones. Curiously, I got to my feet and peered closely at the still form, before reaching out and touching it. It was solid! I jumped upwards, all exhaustion forgotten, as I realised that the man was real, and I continued on my now-merry way, dragging my unconscious friend with me.

0

The purple-eyed teenager glanced around again, and nodded, seemingly satisfied. No-one was around, driven indoors by the sweltering heat, rendering the boy's task as lookout essentially mundane. If he'd told the Guild about his other powers, then he could have gone down there on his own and set the bomb with absolutely no assistance. But the Guild hadn't a clue of his origins, and besides, he didn't want to bother with that kind of stuff. He dropped a waterproof note down the opened manhole, and walked into the nearest building.

A few minutes later, he emerged on the rooftop, before stepping to the edge and pausing for a minute or two, during which his eyes narrowed. His head turned, and I felt his knowing gaze sweep over me for a few milliseconds, but it was enough. He had seen me, and I would have to leave. Such was the nature of espionage. My wings extended, and I took to the air, gliding on a helpful thermal before swooping down to a nondescript alleyway in the shadow of several apartments. I shifted back to human form, and waited for my ride, much like the boy who so arrogantly called himself the 'Captain'.

0

Giovanni snapped another pencil in irritation. According to his secretary, Admin Marsh had just lost his third ship as well as several crewmembers and his life in the search for the clones. The stupid beasts were evading his every attempt to capture them, and to be frank, it was getting goddamn annoying. So annoying that he was now prepared to put his newest and most unstable division to the test.

"Secretary? Get me Division S."

"Division _S_, sir?" she asked, surprised.

Her boss snorted impatiently. "Yes, Division S." The young woman nodded quickly and pressed a small button underneath her desk. A few moments later, five surly teenagers walked through the impressive wooden door. Literally. After they finished brushing wood chips from their shoulders and clothes, they stared vacantly into space for a few minutes, until Giovanni coughed politely and they turned to him.

"What? If you want us to pay for the door, we won't." A boy wearing in a green suit said.

The boss shook his head. "Of course not. I have a mission for you."

"What is it?" asked the green-suited boy, slightly apprehensive.

"Have you heard about the 'morph Division?"

Another boy, this one clad in black shorts and a white t-shirt, nodded knowingly while the others gave questioning looks. "It was an experimental division that managed to escape base E alive, and consisted of the second generation clones, as well as a veritable army of powerful Pokemon."

"So you want us to kill them?"

The large man considered this for a moment. "No. They may be powerful, but my scientists are working on a device that will control them even as we speak. As soon as you capture one of them, the device will be ready for testing."

"On our captive?"

Giovanni allowed himself a brief smirk before answering. "Naturally."

0

Ho-oh set me down on a cardboard box, next to a mysterious brown briefcase that had nothing but a small 'R' engraved and painted red in a corner. We- Ho-oh, Knight and I- were on the rooftop of a decently sized building, where Ho-oh would coordinate all of his forces.

"Knight, set up the wards. I don't want this building to catch fire while _she_," he gestured to me on the word, "is around."

The Dragonite nodded impressively, before spreading out his wings and taking off into the sky, a small wooden box in his massive claws. "It's not really wood, you know. It's actually made from Ho-oh bones."

My eyes must have widened at that, because he added hastily, "Not anyone I knew, of course. It was a fossil." I relaxed, and let out a breath that I had forgotten I was holding. Ignoring me now, Ho-oh reached into his briefcase and pulled out a laptop that had a few interesting additions on it, like a miniature satellite dish and a model grandfather clock sticking out from the side of the screen at a bizarre angle. After a few minutes of intense staring, Ho-oh suddenly reached over to me, patted my head, and looked back down at the screen, a frown plastered on his face. Curious, I padded to his side and tried to make out the images on the plastic surface. Unfortunately, these weak eyes were not up to defining the complex patterns of pixels and vectors, and so all I could see were meaningless squiggles in red and green, the colours bleeding in to each other in places, in others creating definite swirls. The legendary saw me trying to decipher the screen and chuckled.

"It's a report on you."

I blinked. "Me?"

"Uh-huh. I was telling you about the prophecies," said Ho-oh. "You remember the Spear?"

"Sure."

He nodded. "It's not a hundred per cent certain, but we think that it's you."

"So is that why you put up that illusion?" I asked. "To mask _me_?"

"Partly." He turned back to his screen once more, and clicked with his mousepad. "What's up, Sapph?"

An unfamiliar, distorted voice rang from the laptop. "We got the security systems at E down. I'll email you Mode, and he'll transfer all of the files to your hard drive. Then you need Knight and Sal to send in the virus."

"Guess it's target acquired then. How big is Mode gonna be?"

There was a static-filled pause. "Maybe nine or ten terrabytes."

"Good. Over and out!"

0

Inside the universe of numbers, Mode gazed, unseeing, at the endless stream of ones and zeroes as he reflected on his masters' plans. It was true that humanity as a whole was a corrupting influence on the planet, but was it truly necessary to take such an extreme course of action? As a machine, Mode had no idea. Sentience is not something easily emulated, and it would seem that Silph Corporation still hadn't figured it out. He'd heard that a special upgrade _could_ provide him with the required emotions, but it was also extremely unstable and could result in a fatal malfunction. As he neared the glowing portal to yet another computer, he caused his virtual form to shake it's head. He'd never figure life out- that was for the living.

0

Oracle plunged into the sea for the tenth time in less than an hour, Mewtwo's glowing eyes giving him away. The boat was still at Greengrove dock, the crew still waiting for Sol to show up. With a telepathic sigh, Luna retrieved the canine with her own telekinesis, as Liz gave a Wingull a message to give the Captain.

"If he doesn't get it, you are one dead bird, okay? Good." Next to her and drenched to the bone again, Oracle elbowed Ken in the gut and growled something that could be loosely translated to 'dry me off' with a few colourful adjectives stuck in. The Blaziken obliged, roasting the Lucario with a well-aimed Fire Blast.

"That's NOT what I meant!"

"Really?" Before Oracle could start beating up the fire-type, a Gallade teleported in between them.

"_Sorry to disturb you, but the Lady has demanded your immediate presence. Mewtwo too._"

As Luna's eyes started glowing to indicate that she was using her telekinesis, Mewtwo psychically threw Oracle off the now-hovering ship one last time.

0

A Glaceon padded towards me, the crystalline walls of the cave reflecting her a million times. Behind her, an Arcanine, an Onix, and an Espeon regarded me suspiciously. The Glaceon knew that I was no threat though.

"The storm is coming. Unite the circle, and defeat the dark ones. Only the power of the Shield can unleash the Force, and only the dark ones can thwart the prophecies. Defeat them, and assume the mantle as the Protector. Beware the lost city, and remember this message. Or the world will burn with you." My mouth wouldn't work. A talking Glaceon had just befuddled me with talk of a prophecy and shields, so one might think that it was just shock, but it wasn't. My dream-self simply couldn't speak. I wanted to ask a million questions, but none of them would come to my lips. It was like drinking a rock, but in reverse. I certainly knew what it felt like.

0

In a desert, far away from Sinnoh or Greengrove, far from any humans, there stands a massive tomb. A necropolis of sorts, for though the inhabitants have long since died, a feeling of life still lingers, an intangible vestige of the ancient civilisation that once protected the secrets of Zekrom. That feeling will soon be removed. And the continents will move again.

0

**The next chapter is going to blow your minds! Anybody think that they know what the Glaceon's talking about? Cookies if you can guess any of the 'real' identities of the Pokemon in the cave, and if you know what the last sentence means. R&R!**


	10. Things Start To Make Sense

**Targets**

**A Pokemon fanfiction**

**The Great Rewrite has started. In maybe three or four days of this post, I will post the NEW and IMPROVED version of Chapter One. Then I'll start with Chapter Two. And so on until maybe Chapter Nine, cause it's the only other one that I'm really happy with. If you're anxious that this will slow down my update time considerably, you'd be right! Although not for another two chapters yet. I've almost finished Eleven, and Twelve is well in the making. Thirteen won't be up for quite a bit though...**

**Stronger language in this chapter. It stops being for kids... now!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Pokemon, and I never will. That doesn't stop me from wishing...**

0

I stumbled forwards, the huge walls of Greengrove shimmering in the almost solid heat. In another situation, I would have been admiring them, but Brock and Pikachu were both _still_ unconscious.

"Wake up! We're at Greengro-" Then I noticed that one of the gatehouses was on fire. "Never mind."

Cautiously now, I sneaked to the iron-wrought gates (also on fire) and peaked through one of the gaps in the door. Utter chaos was reigning inside, with fires erupting every five seconds in totally random places. A flaming portion of a building somehow collapsed on to several screaming civilians, and a pack of Houndoom and Houndour were cornering a terrified couple in a... well, in a corner. Vaguely wondering why I hadn't noticed this earlier, I jogged backwards, dragging Brock with me, and caught sight of something pretty weird. A boat was somehow floating in the air, heading away from the burning city. Even as I stared at it, several figures dropped from the airborne ship.

0

"Manoeuvre! Get left. We do need another Poliwrath," snapped Stryke. The ex-ferry hadn't been able to make Greengrove in time, so the Captain had sent it to Crag Rock for repairs and restocking. Deceit and Cunning, the Ninjask twins, were overseeing a foraging trip on a (hopefully) deserted island, while Stryke was attempting to unclog the bilge pump with his crew watching unhelpfully. A Breloom carrying a recently polished knife dared to laugh at his superior, though, and that proved to be his undoing. As it turned out, Cunning had stayed behind in a grand scheme to get the fighters to bow down to their superior. The Breloom's severed head fell into the water with a loud splash, and those next to him were suddenly sprayed in viscous red stuff.

"That what be happening to those who would disobey me!"

"Aye aye, cap'n!" chorused the (understandably) scared crew.

0

The boy in the oversized green suit leaned over the railing, enjoying his new-found freedom.

"Don't get used to it, Smear. Soon as we catch 'em, it's back to the cells for us," said his companion, wearing his customary suit of armour.

Smear shook his head. "We can take as long as we like."

Legion nodded enthusiastically, his left arm suddenly dissipating into a swarm of flies. Next to him, Control shrieked and leaped away from him, almost falling of the cruiser in the process. The mute shapeshifter quickly reformed his limb, shrugging an apology. Dark just watched the four, silent as always.

"Procrastinating or not, we need to start somewhere. Where would a bunch of retarded clones hide from Team Rocket?"

Behind them, a Xatu swooped down to the deck. "_I sincerely doubt that your quarries would appreciate being referred to as 'retarded clones'._"

Dark snarled unintelligibly, feathers springing from his arms. In less than a minute, a Honchkrow stood where Dark had been. Or rather, hovered. Legion, too, reacted quickly, and the bugs that made up the illusion of a person reformed into the distorted image of a Scyther. "_Interesting. It would seem that Team Rocket have decided to fight fire with fire. Or, as you would put it, fight retarded clone with retarded clone._"

The Honchkrow's vicious eyes narrowed, and it shot off into the air, before tucking it's wings in and plunging to the Xatu. Which abruptly wasn't there any more.

"Teleportation!" shouted Chair.

Control rolled her eyes. "We figured. Now how about _doing_ something?"

"Right." Moments later, a Grovyle erupted from the knight's armour and stretched. "Man, that feels good."

The Xatu suddenly appeared right above Legion, and divebombed him. The swarm of flies was forced to part in order to avoid lasting damage. As Chair engaged the Xatu in combat, Smear assessed the situation. Though the scientists in charge of them had always thought of Chair as a leader, and had named him accordingly, it was Smear who was able to keep his cool the longest. Valuable in a fight against a psychic bird. Dark was still out of it, his beak impaling the varnished wood of the floor, and half of Legion had somehow gotten waterlogged and that was hindering his reforming efforts. Control was attempting to use her telepathy to distract the Xatu as it flitted around Chair, dodging attacks and getting under the Grovyle's defence. Smear nodded.

"Control! Wall of Wood!" The psychic lifted her arm, and in seconds, chunks of wood were revolving around Chair. "Chair, prepare to roast a bird!" The Grovyle suddenly changed colour, becoming a dark orange, and his leaves withered into nothingness. A thrashing tail emerged from his behind, and he shrunk into a stockier, but still agile form. As the tip of his tail burst into flames, he inhaled deeply.

The Xatu popped into existence right behind Smear, tearing at his suit with vicious claws. Control, seeing the attack, used her powers to lift the boy in green into the air- accidentally crushing Chair with the wall of wood in the process. Smear swore, just in time for Xatu to teleport on top of him and continue it's assault. Then they saw the Empoleon.

The Xatu mentally shouted a rude expletive, before taking off in the opposite direction of the water penguin. Sector S was left understandably confused.

0

Buildings were consumed by ravenous flames around me, and still the sound of human screams interrupted the savage beauty of the scene. I would have thought that the humans had had the sense to escape the city, but it seemed that they were ill-disposed to abandon their lives for their... their lives. A man carrying what seemed to be a body approached me. I had to admire his bravery- not many would drag a cadaver through a burning town just to find the cause of the whole inferno. Then I recognised the face.

"_Ash Ketchum. Coming to stop me?_" I asked, curious. The human was certainly the most remarkable one I'd ever met, but that was saying nothing. I'd only truly known seven or eight humans to date.

His face hard, he replied. "No. But I need help."

"_I shall revive your friend... friends,_" I said, noticing the familiar Pikachu slumped over his shoulder, "_but nothing more._"

"That's not what I meant."

I blinked, surprised. "_Surely you have no wish but the well-being of your comrades?_"

"The information I want will help them," he replied evenly, his voice barely containing his emotion.

"_Very well. Though my employers prize knowledge above all else, perhaps there is some small nugget of truth that I can give to you._"

He shut his eyes, as if soul-searching. "Okay, then. Do you know where I can find the 'Spear'?"

The request baffled me. What did a simple boy want to do with twisted prophecies of old? How had he found out even that small piece of trivia? This made no sense. Much like the Jenes, in fact. I answered him anyway. "_Find the Obelisk. Thirty-two Madison Avenue. Second floor. If anything can help you find it, the Obelisk will._" His eyes flew open.

"Okay. And thanks."

0

Ho-oh was definitely trying to attack at least _one_ of Team Rocket's multiple fronts. His plot also involved taking over Greengrove by force, and somehow integrating the nearby desert into a complex scheme. It was almost ascertained that he was not aiming for the good of the planet, like he said, that was for sure. But control over the desert was a pretty weird thing to actively covet. All I knew about it is that it had once supplied Sinnoh with iron ore until the people of Oreburgh discovered a deposit of the stuff in Mount Coronet. Then a series of scary accidents and increasing paranoia lead to the closing of the mine, and soon it was nothing but a history topic. So maybe he was trying to capture the mine?

"Still trying to work me out?"

I grunted non-committally. "Well, we'll be leaving soon."

That was when I decided to leave.

0

"The Chosen One is trying to reach the Obelisk," said Revert calmly.

Forward shook his hands agitatedly. "I noticed! Tell me something new!"

"The Spear is already at the Obelisk."

"Say again?"

"You heard me the first time."

The psychic considered this for a split second. "Well, that fucks us up."

"It does."

"So what do we do?"

"From your information, the Empoleon agent has departed. We can summarise that this area has therefore become somehow hazardous to his health."

Forward nodded, and then his eyes brightened. "The fire!"

"Correct."

"So... how exactly does this help us?"

"We know that Empoleon are well able to resist fires, given their competence with water attacks. Suppose that this fire is a little bit more than just a fire. How would a fire accomplish that?"

"Er... how?"

Revert tapped his friend's skull. "Controlled by a psychic. A very powerful psychic."

"Like what, Mew?" Forward asked, bemused.

"Correct."

"So the dark ones have managed to procure a Mew, beings long extinct. Yeah, that works."

"The last known one died less than a year ago, Seeker. That makes it the most recent extinction so far."

The Seeker's eyes widened. "So... assuming they had the tech, they could have made a clone?"

"That wasn't what I was looking for. What other powerful clones of Mew do we know?"

"Apart from the dark ones, you mean?"

"Naturally."

"Mewtwo?"

"Exactly. Now that we know the extent of the dark ones' capability, I believe that we have a prophetic hero to guide." The two of them stood up.

"To or away from the Obelisk?"

As Revert started walking, he said, "We'll cross that bridge when we come to it."

0

"Oh? This is interesting," muttered Sapphire.

"What? What did you do?" said Nicole, apprehensive. The two were sitting outside the base that Nicholas had infiltrated less than a week earlier, this time in search of an item separate from their main quest. The Dubious Disc, able to raise the hacking speed of a certain synthetic Pokemon by well over two thousand megabytes per second. Pretty useful when your sworn enemies used computers to store almost all of their information that wasn't on paper.

Sapphire waved away her fellow's concerns with an amiable wave. "Nothing, it's just that Rocket has stopped using a mainframe to store their bits and pieces. And it has a forty-digit passcode."

"Dark Pulse it away, then."

"Just di- What's this?" Mode's visage had popped up on the screen.

"**The Spear has just escaped the Captain. He advises you to not return in less than thirty-eight minutes.**"

The two girls looked at each other and back at the Porygon-2.

"Screw Nick, since when did he ever get stuff right?" said Nicole, speaking for both of them.

0

"Knight, stay up here and watch for that Xatu. Ice Beam it and make sure it's frozen. I'm going after that messed-up Glaceon."

"Roger that, Captain!" said the Dragonite, saluting his mentor and Captain with his partly-frozen arm. After May had decided to leave their company, she had fired off two quick Ice Beams at her two companions, before leaving through the fire escape. The nearby fires had helped them thaw out far faster than usual, although Knight was still having trouble moving. The Captain ran down the stairs, right into an unpleasant surprise. Diamond was standing with a bloody finger and steam practically pouring out of her ears. As the blood rapidly crystallised on her hand, she related to her cousin the brief episode concerning the Glaceon.

"Yeah, but did you shut off the second floor?"

"What has the second floor got to do with that Glaceon?"

"She's the fricking Spear! It has everything to do with the bitch!"

"And why didn't you tell me sooner?" asked Diamond, pure venom lacing her voice.

"Because you were too busy whining about- What is _he_ doing out there?" Even as the two watched with increasing trepidation, Ash Ketchum himself threw open the door to the building right at the end of Madison Avenue and hurled himself, an unconscious Gym Leader, and his Pikachu into the makeshift base.

Unknowingly quoting the Seeker (who was also rapidly approaching the Obelisk, just for the record), Nicholas said one thing. "That _really_ fucks us up."

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**Who liked it? Who _loved_ it? Who wants to flame me for a crap chapter? R E V I E W ! Like now. Right now, in fact.**


	11. Introducing Obelisks

**Targets**

**A Pokemon Fanfiction**

**Chapter Eleven, boys and gals! For once, this chapter has no POV switch, concentrating solely on the trainer at the end of chapter eight and Jericho. Remember 'em? And Chapter Twelve focuses on Ash's confrontation with the guys who set Greengrove on fire, in the same timeslot.**

**By the way, if we don't start getting reviews, the chapters are going to take longer and longer to upload. It's almost blackmail, but that's our condition. We've only had a grand total of one review for this fic, and that was from a guy who posted the review to tell us he was done with Targets. We were able to follow through this, and we're betareading for him now, but...**

**One last thing. We were looking at the Traffic Page, and noticed something very odd. Chapter Six has had thirteen or fourteen views, which we respect, but the number drops to four for the next chapter. But in Eight, the views are up at sixteen. What's going on?**

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Jericho pulled me along with her, almost wrenching my arm from it's cosy socket.

"Where the hell are we going?" I got my answer in the form of a thick knot of twigs to the face as Jericho headed into a forest that I hadn't noticed the night before in my hunger. As a second branch hit me in the exact same spot as before, my crazy friend halted in front of a weird stone pillar. It seemed to exude a quiet menace, one that- rather bizarrely- reminded me of Giza, that Sandslash that had magicked away all of our spaghetti. Only this one seemed far more dangerous, to the point that I looked around furtively while Jericho took off her shiny necklace. It was weird, much like the pillar itself- what could a rock in the middle of nowhere do? Naturally, my thought was jinxed.

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Jericho must have punched it or something while I was looking around, because when I turned back, there was a jagged gash in the stone. A strange, earthy gale whipped our hair back, and that would have been fine by me had it not come from some point inside the pillar. Inside the pillar.

"Uh, Jericho? What the hell is going on? You drag me into a forest and introduce me to a breathing pillar, and you expect me to just play along?" When my (now questionable) friend didn't answer, I reluctantly glanced at the pillar once again. Now it was slowly shifting, each brick twisting and turning to an invisible beat. The gale had gotten stronger, and now a few nearby saplings were straining to hold onto the ground. Jericho was holding her necklace up to the pillar, and it glowed a faint violet as the wind intensified.

"Go, Bale!" I fumbled for the activation switch on Bale's ball and summoned my starter. "Use Ingrain to keep us on the floor!" My Grotle obeyed, and a dozen or so brown tendrils snaked from his feet and implanted themselves into the floor. I clung onto the bushes sticking out of his back, and continued watching the pillar.

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A few moments later, I was sucked into the pillar. And I came out of it on the other side. Sort of. It wasn't the same forest, but the pillar was definitely behind me. Although I felt a little heavy, I seemed healthy enough. Then I saw that I was green.

"Gro!" I hadn't actually meant to say that, but it was the first thing out of my mouth. Or beak, now that I'd seen it.

Jericho looked down at me, confused. Her hoodie and jeans had vanished, replaced by a sundress that glittered in the rays of the sun. I looked up through the sparse branches of trees to catch sight of the star, first to the east as I assumed that it was still morning here. Then I turned around, and saw that it was in fact setting. The orb of light in the sky seemed weaker here, but the rays tinged everything here with an unearthly beauty that could never have been found on the other side.

"Huh? How did you get here?" she asked me.

"Gro! Gro-tle, tull!" I bleated in reply.

She bit her lip, thrown by the language barrier between us. I shook my head despairingly, and that seemed to clinch it for her. Her eyes squeezed shut, and her body started to emanate an odd glow. I recognised it as what happened when Pokemon evolved. But how could a human do it? As I thought over this, she finished 'evolving', and a Gabite stood in her place.

"This is gonna take some getting used to," she said, as if nothing had happened.

I stared disbelievingly. "Gro?"

"What? Why can't I understand you?"

_Don't ask me, dammit_, I thought. Oddly enough, she heard that.

"So you must communicate with telepathy here! The only other guy I've met here who did too was so different, though."

_You've been here before?_ I thought-asked sharply.

"Not through the Obelisk, but yeah, I have. What's it to ya?"

_How?_

"Dreams. It's why they call it the Dream World," she said airily.

Any further inquiries were cut short by a strange Glaceon being catapulted from some point behind us and hitting a thick oak bodily. It seemed vaguely familiar, but how I had no clue. The ice-type was closely followed by a teenage girl and an Arcanine. The latter two both sported cuts and bruises in multiple locations, and the girl's white cotton shirt was singed in places. Glaceon shook her head briefly, before shouting something that I didn't catch, and the Arcanine didn't seem to notice either the fact that it was an Arcanine or that a Glaceon was yelling at it, by the way that it was attacking the girl with apparently balled-up paws. The girl had been knocked unconscious when she had hit the tree headfirst, although was showing signs of stirring, and both of the Pokemon noticed it. Their reactions were pretty different though. The Glaceon tore off to hide behind a tree, while the Arcanine growled threateningly. Before the girl could get up, however, a fourth being soared into the battered tree and cursed loudly.

The person, who I saw was a boy about the same age as the girl, swore again when he saw that he was crushing the girl, and hastily got up before offering his arm to the other teenager. I looked at Jericho, trying to gauge her reaction, but being a Gabite seemed to have made her harder to read. She was definitely not expecting this, though.

The two teens dusted themselves off, before the boy fired a Dark Pulse off at the Arcanine, fainting it. Ordinarily, I would have been surprised, but it was pretty obvious that I wasn't in the normal world, from the way I was, you know, a Grotle. Jericho seemed to find this outrageous behaviour, though.

"What are you two doing here? This place is closed off to dark ones!" she all but screeched.

"So?" The Gabite stopped mid-rant, gapingly speechless. "So what if I've broken all of the rules of the prophecy? Arceus, and you haven't even noticed the Chosen One yet!"

The phrase 'dark ones' clued me in to something- but, like the memory of the Glaceon, I couldn't quite put my (figurative) finger on it. There was still a piece missing.

Jericho's mouth was still open, revealing countless pointy teeth. The Arcanine was still unconscious, and the Glaceon was still hiding behind the tree.

"Hey, Diamond, what happened to May?"  
"_Who_?"

"May. You know, that feline ice-type that just happens to be the most powerful weapon since Regigigas?"

"Oh. I don't know," she said. I was paying little attention though- my sudden epiphany was much more interesting and useful. Diamond, Diamond... I remembered vaguely a cave. Made out of diamonds. And then there was a Glaceon, which must have been the one hiding behind a tree. And she _had_ mentioned something about dark ones, and a lost city. The only problem there was that she couldn't have possibly intruded on my dream- unless she was in the Dream World at the time!

_Hey_, I said suddenly to Jericho, as the girl and the boy argued. _Are there any caves in this place?_

"One or two. Why?"

_Any of them made out of crystals?_

"Maybe. Why?"

_No reason. Where's the nearest one?_

"No idea. Why?"

_Forget it_. It seemed that I would have to figure it all out later. The Arcanine was awake again, but had the sense to stay limp on the grassy floor. The boy broke off mid-sentence, seeming to notice the Arcanine's return to consciousness. Then I saw that two more creatures had come through the stone pillar. Namely, a Xatu and a Drifblim. As I watched the four, the boy extended his arm once again and fired off a second Dark Pulse, catching the Xatu head-on. It tumbled through the air before righting itself, then did something I'd only ever seen a Ditto do. It transformed. Glowing with the same light as Jericho when she turned into a Gabite, it shifted into a more humanoid form. When the glowing subsided, I recognised a Gallade.

The boy merely smirked. He thrust both of his arms out to the sides, and exploded into flames. I gave a cry of alarm, but the fire died out in less than five seconds, revealing something much more magnificent and imposing than a mere Gallade.

A Ho-oh stood, wings extended, where the boy had burst into flames. This change was much more instantaneous than the Xatu's, and so both of his foes were caught by surprise. Flames shot upwards around the Gallade, caging it with a fiery wall, while the Drifblim dodged multiple Ice attacks from the girl. The Arcanine was standing up now, eyes narrowed, and the Glaceon was started to edge away from the tree it had been hiding behind, although this was probably because it had caught fire. Four would soon become six. At least, until the Ho-oh caught sight of the Glaceon and called off the inferno that surrounded the Gallade. Which had been reduced to a soot-blackened and charred body lying on the floor, totally fainted. Fire flew from the bird's wingtips, and soon the Glaceon was in much the same state as the Gallade, lying on the floor with heavy burns.

The Arcanine threw itself at the Ho-oh with a roar when it saw this, but a simple Fire Spin sent it flying in another direction while the Ho-oh returned to human form. It may have been planned, or simply random coincidence, but the Arcanine flew straight into the Drifblim. Which had been partially frozen by it's foe while I'd been watching the Glaceon burn, but now it had been forced to go intangible to avoid being brained by a hurtling Arcanine. And we all know how effective a Dark Pulse is when used on an intangible Ghost-type.

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"Hands high in the air, where we can see 'em!" commanded the boy, back in human form and a fireball burning merrily in his palm. Jericho obliged, but as a Grotle, I had no hands. Or arms, for that matter. Seeing this, the boy added, "Vines, too. Vines up!"

I raised my vines.

"What are you doing here? This is Defender-only land!" My friend all but screeched again.

The boy considered this. "Not any more."

Jericho opened her mouth to protest. _No, Jericho. Let _me _handle this._

"A telepathic Grotle?" asked the boy, an eyebrow raised. "Interesting."

"He's a human on the other side. He has _not_ been 'improved' by one of your kind." snapped Jericho waspishly, ignoring my demand.

_Improved? What d'you mean?_

"You haven't explained our powers to your turtle friend? Some pal," he taunted her. "Well," he started, turning to me, "Me and Diamond here are members of a super-race designed to combat _them_." He gestured to the four unconscious Pokemon and Jericho. "We have the DNA of certain Pokemon in our bodies, and we share the common ability to Improve a Pokemon or person."

_Meaning?_

"You see, most Pokemon and humans can only use around five percent of their brains. Psychics tend to be able to use ten to twelve percent, and Magikarp can only use one percent, but it's all really just a small portion. This is because of certain mental blocks in the brain."

He paused, as if to add impact to his next words. "But _we _can remove these blocks from a brain, allowing a human or a Pokemon to reach their full potential. We can give an Empoleon psychic powers, for example. Or increase the power of a Magikarp until it can defeat a Jolteon any day of the week. It could even be used to cause a spontaneous evolution!"

_What's the point?_

"Point? First off, it is _very_ useful in helping others. If you friend here like to sing, but was disallowed to by her parents, for example, you could assist her in multiple ways. You could give her mind control powers, or even Improve her parents' singing abilities to show them how great it truly is. The possibilities are endless!"

Jericho snorted. "You haven't mentioned that your favourite use of your power is to cause an illusion of excruciating pain."

"He doesn't need to know that," countered the boy smoothly, excluding me from the conversation almost gracefully.

"He does if you're gonna try recruiting him into your gang!"

"What would I need a Defender around me for?" asked the boy, head cocked.

"He can... he can... Defender?" stuttered Jericho.

He shook his head condescendingly. "Can't even recognise one of your own kind. How unfortunate. Your own half-brother, too!"

An indefinable hissing sound ripped from Jericho's throat. "Shut. Up."

"Honestly. Didn't two of the Original Defenders share a mother? Dock and Nettle, or something?"

Jericho's face went from furious to surprised and back again. But before she could act on it, the ice girl stole behind her and froze her solid. I was beginning to see their tandem.

"So, Bale is all that's left."

_What do you mean? My name's-_ The boy cut me off.

"A psychic block? Well, that sucks. So... you must be the Protector." Confusion set in. He didn't seem to be able to hear my thoughts any more. Ordinarily, this would be great, but now we had a small issue with communication. "What're you waiting for? Say something."

"Eclipse, forget it. It's probably just an ordinary Grotle."

"No, I'm sure that it used telepathy before. Absolutely- oh. Screw that bastard." He turned ninety degrees to face the felled Drifblim and Gallade, and glared at them angrily. His hand came up, but the Drifblim was faster. A gust of air blew him and the girl backwards, as it rose into the air once again. The boy twisted in the air, and a Flamethrower attack poured from his now-cupped hands, straight at the ghost. Opposite him, the girl was doing the same, but instead firing an Ice Beam.

The Drifblim flew upwards to avoid both attacks, not seeing the third being directly above him. A Thunderbolt later, and the Drifblim was down once again.

"Coal! How'd you teleport here from the base?"

"I didn't. I used that Obelisk Key you gave me."

"On what?" asked the boy, Eclipse, warily.

"The Isshu Obelisk."

The first girl cocked an eyebrow. "So you came to the Dream World after Mode had told you _not_ to, saw what was happening through Eclipse's eyes, and decided to help out?"

"That's about it," conceded Coal loftily. She looked almost exactly like Eclipse, and I supposed that they were twins. Both were wearing sunglasses, now that I noticed. 'Caramelldansen' played suddenly. The boy stuck his hand into his pocket, took out a phone, pressed a few keys, and held it to his head. "Wrong way, idiot. And you should change your ringtone. It ruins our image of enigmatic ambiguity."

Eclipse turned his phone the right way up, but otherwise ignored his sister.

"Yeah? Who's this?" A muffled voice replied from the device. "No, we are still laying siege to Greengrove. Look, what do you think? Can you hear screams? Inferno and his pack can take care of it." He paused, and the muffled voice spoke again.

"We're still in Greengrove."

The voice said something else. "Yeah, I know that there's a meeting in thirty-two minutes."

"Bye!" He clicked the phone off and put it back in his pocket. "Wait a sec... how'd they call me? This is another plane of existence! There isn't a mobile phone signal here!"

"How about we just go to their meeting," deadpanned Coal. So they left, leaving me all alone with five unconscious Defenders.

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"So, what about you?" the Arcanine asked the Drifblim. We were waiting for May the Glaceon and Forward the Gallade to wake up, while recounting what had happened before around a campfire that the Arcanine, called Ash, had started.

Ash had been teleported into some desert north of a city called Greengrove by Eclipse, who he referred to as 'Nicholas', and was attacked by a Rhydon and a Scyther who managed to not only knock out his friend Brock and his Pikachu, but also steal all of his Pokeballs. Defying them, he made it to Greengrove, but found that it was on fire. A flying ship and a Lucario later, and he had large gashes in his right arm and side, as well as the knowledge that Nicholas/Eclipse had the Spear, aka May. He then entered the city, still on fire, and found the cause of it all, a Mewtwo that he had dealt with in the past. Knowing that Nicholas/Eclipse had probably set the Mewtwo on the city, he made it to the clone, and asked for the Spear. He was told to find an Obelisk, and given locations to the nearest one, which was conveniently a few blocks away from him. He found it, but was attacked by the girl, called Diamond. Long story short, he made it to the Obelisk and was completely surprised to fly into a tree. You know what happened from there.

"I am the Sensor. My powers allow me to converse with those on the spirit plane, which in turn provides me with information I would otherwise be unable to access."

"In other words, you have a sixth sense?"

"In a way," he replied. "May I continue with my narrative?"

Ash attempted to process this. "Yeah! Sure..."

"Like all Defenders, I was sent to this planet to unite with my brethren and save the balance from the dark ones."

"So... we're meant to unite with one another to save the world?"

"Precisely. Among us are the Chosen One- you, Ash Ketchum. You are the negotiator- all Pokemon will grow to respect and rever you, no matter what. Your primary job when we have all united is to prevent unnecessary distractions from disrupting or hindering our operations, by allying with all the life in an area. Then we have the Seeker, our friend Forward. His power is the gift of clear sight, and time travel. His tertiary, passive ability allows him to activate full Defender powers at a touch, although most Defenders exhibit at least low-level variations of their abilities at all times anyway. He is the initial uniter, and it is his job to find all of the Defenders and make sure that they are alive when they come together. The next is the Spear. The Spear is able to overcome immense odds, and has the entirely unique power to absorb their foes' powers and use them against their foes, creating massive damage in Pokemon that are weak to their own type, as well as providing a magnified form of 'Tri Attack' when facing multiple foes with different abilities. As such, the Spear is almost undefeatable in battle. Then we have the Protector. The Protector's abilities are predominantly passive, using powers similar to the four weather moves and Safeguard, only on a much greater scale. Their main purpose is to protect their fellow Defenders, and is particularly useful when working with the Seeker. The fifth member in the traditional order is the Sensor. As you know, he can communicate with those on the spirit plane, allowing him to gain vital information. He often acts as an advisor, using his skill to provide his allies with handy tips. The sixth is the Reverser- your friend Jericho over there, Bale. She can turn the tide in a battle with her power over elements, and although she has her memories from past incarnations intact, unlike the Spear or you, Ash, she lacks any of her powers until she comes into contact with the Seeker, which should happen in about an hour."

"Cool... what next?"

"Finally, we have the Warper. He or she can bend the very fabric of space and time to teleport or travel in time, although often they will simply use the power in much the same fashion as a Gardevoir, warping a miniature black hole to be used as a weapon or disposal unit."

"A _what_?"

"Rubbish bin."

"Right..."

"The Warper's main role as a Defender is to transport the group from place to place, not to mention their potential combat ability when fighting on the side of the Spear."

Ash nodded, trying to look intelligent and failing miserably. I'd spent the entire lecture sitting on the floor, eyeing the fire warily. It seemed that Grotle had an in-built fear of fire.

The Drifblim still hadn't noticed that I was a human in Grotle form, and was probably assuming that I was Jericho's Pokemon. As for Ash... forget it. The guy was an Arcanine for the moment.

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**How'd ya like it? Remember, this chapter is synonymous with Chapter Twelve. And review before you press the 'next' button.**


	12. Into the Storm

**Targets**

**A Pokemon Fanfiction**

**This will be the last 'new' chapter for a while, as I revamp the previous chapters. So, take this as a parting gift. Reviews, please!**

**Disclaimer: I do not claim ownership of any of the Pokemon characters in this story, or Brock, Ash or May.**

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"Diamond, take Ash out! I'll deal with May in the Obelisk room," I shouted to my liege-woman. She nodded, before Quick Attacking down to the staircase. We'd already blocked up the lift shaft, and the only windows on the second floor were about as big as my head. I picked up a crowbar and flung the door to the corridor open. The room with the Obelisk was right at the end- in retrospect that was probably a stupid idea, putting it in only room directly visible from the entrance. The entire floor was chilly, although I only noticed because my body heat made the nearby ice melt rapidly. Vaguely wondering how a Glaceon had opened and then closed a door without opposable thumbs, I hurled my crowbar at the door, shattering it. Prompting a Glaceon that had been clinging to the ceiling to drop to the floor and vanish into the room. Furious with myself, I created a fireball in my hand and torched the pile of rubble blocking the doorway.

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The first thing that occurred to me was that there was a tornado in the middle of the room, shielding the Obelisk. Then it clicked. Someone had activated it! Since May was latched on to a chair that had been fixed to the floor, I assumed that it wasn't her. But there was no-one else in the room, save for me. I turned back to the indoor cyclone and tried to look through the tearing gale to see the other side of the Obelisk.

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Obelisks are often linked in a duo or triad. When linked this way, the primary function of an Obelisk is an interdimensional portal to either the Dream Universe or another place in this universe. A common term for Obelisk that is purely designed for talk about this link is 'side', and other than being used for describing a supernatural rock, it has the same conventions as usual in language. When an Obelisk is activated, it is at it's most vulnerable. So of course it must defend itself from harm while allowing entry of the activater and any nearby Defenders. Most Obelisks do this by forming a powerful hurricane or cyclone to blow away projectiles and physically repel melee attackers. There are exceptions, but this is the general convention for Obelisks.

When an Obelisk transports one across space and time in the blink of an eye, several things are happening. First, it collapses any inbetween space into a temporal pocket, shifting the two Obelisks into one, a process generally referred to as 'folding'. Less than 0.000003 nanoseconds later, a complex 'timeshift' takes place, essentially causing the traveller to be drawn in and then out of the Obelisk. This freezes time for the rest of the universe for as long as it takes the shift. As soon as the traveller(s) are safely clear of the time boundaries, the collapsed or 'folded' space and time are restored to their original state, ending the transportation. There have been instances where the traveller has gotten caught in the temporal pocket while the spacetime is folding, but by and large, the travellers made it safely. It helped that only one in a billion people knew about this technology, for that is what it is, and that even fewer could activate an Obelisk.

There are many ways to activate an Obelisk. Perhaps the most simple way is to capture a Legendary Pokemon and present it to the Obelisk. Unless it is an Original, it should work. However, a more certain way is to be born with Obelisk Touch.

Obelisk Touch is an ability that certain people are born with, and until recent events, the only ones with the ability were Defenders. What it does is activate any Obelisks (or other items manufactured with the same technology) just with physical contact. As well as that, people with Obelisk Touch are unaffected by the hurricane summoned to protect an Obelisk, and one or two could even completely shut down an Obelisk tornado.

The third, most obscure, method is to acquire a Legendary Item. Some Legends are too elusive to capture, so some resort to using objects like scales, teeth, or even DNA strands to activate an Obelisk. Few have tried this, and it is the one method that has a fifty per cent chance of failure, unless you possess the Dragon Scale that was taken from the head of a giant Rayquaza in the year 1348 by the first ever Dragon Tamer. This Legendary Item is capable of powering up dragon-type moves as well as opening 'Gates', which are essentially Obelisks only magnified exponentially.

Indeed, Obelisks are very powerful tools.

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As a lone light bulb spluttered feebly above me, I noted that the girl we'd seen at Nicholas's island was stalking me in the shadows as I approached the staircase. In moments, she'd try to charge me, but I would be ready. I flicked open the swiss army knife I'd bought from a burning store, and flung the door open. The result was instantaneous. A white streak exploded from a dark corner as mist poured from it's front. Lightning bolts flew from random places in the damp whiteness, but all of them missed. Well, they missed me, at any rate. However, the single light bulb, still flickering fitfully above me, was not going to be so lucky, as was proved when it was blown to pieces by a bolt of electrifying light. I ducked down to avoid the shards of glass raining down upon me.

I soon saw the error of my action. A ground-level blizzard froze over my mouth and nose, choking me. The crazy girl must have used an ice attack on the floor, anticipating my move! The fact that I was engaged in possibly fatal combat against a psychic was not very encouraging, a fact further proven by my increasingly shallow breathing as I suffocated. I was going to black out pretty quickly- she'd probably done this thing before.

A sudden fork of flame shot from the floor, shattering the ice over my face almost instantly. The girl snarled something incomprehensibly, although it might have meant something to me if I wasn't too busy trying to inhale more air than I could fit in my lungs. Her eyes narrowed viciously, and more lightning flew from her fingers. Like a light turning on, something clicked in my head. I grinned savagely, and leapt into the air, noticing that I could leap higher now. Each bolt sailed harmlessly underneath me, and I barely registered that even though the mist was still there, my eyes could pierce through the gloom like freaking searchlights. I would have been surprised, but there was a strange feeling filling up my entire body, from the top of my head to the tip of my toes. It was like winning the Sinnoh League all over again. The girl threw more electric attacks at me, which I dodged easily, folding my body in between each sheet of lightning like I was born doing this. I could have been.

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I shook my head disgustedly. There was absolutely nothing I could see on the other side. On the other hand... May still wasn't letting go of her chair, leaving her a very vulnerable target. Then Diamond yelled something very disrupting.

"You aren't meant to _freaking turn yet_!" She could only mean the Ho-oh spawn, Master Trainer Ash. I gritted my teeth, squeezed my eyes shut, and counted to ten very slowly. Then I strode out of the room, bloody murder in my eyes.

My first impression was, Hey, it could be worse! Then I noticed that Ash was not only a lot bigger than he was before, but he was dodging zaps of lightning. _Easily_. So he probably was really Ho-oh spawn, not to mention one of those Defenders. Despicable.

"Diamond, forget it. I'll take him- it's what _they_ made me for, right? Go after May." She took a look at me, nodded, then sped up the staircase.

Ash growled ferally. "Bring it on."

"I will."

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The purple-eyed killer was here. So it was time to take him down a notch. My arm sliced through the air, aiming for his evil head. He simply smiled pleasantly, and at the last instant vanished in a brief flash of fire. A heavy blow to the base of my skull made me spin around. He was levitating not two metres away from me, a wicked grin on his face. As soon as I'd seen him, he threw a punch at my face, and I flew into the stairs. Another punch, and blood dribbled from my nose to the ground in a slow river.

"You're right- we should make it faster," he said, still grinning darkly. I rose shakily to my feet, and grabbed his arm. Shock flashed across his face for a beat, but his grin was back in place before someone could say 'teleport'. Another fiery flash, and he was across the room. My leg groaning in protest, I staggered towards him.

"I guess that I'll have to tell your daddy that you can't stand a chance against your own clone. He won't like that too much."

"You... look nothing... like me."

"What if we just invented our human forms? Maybe we _do_ look the same- in another form." I was going to reply- my euphoria was long gone- but sudden realisation gripped me, and I grinned savagely. As I tore up the stairs with speed borne of desperation, I yelled back, "Maybe, maybe not! But May is coming with me!"

I heard didn't quite catch my foe's muffled reply, but it definitely took him a couple of seconds to realise what I meant.

"BITCH!"

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No-one noticed the Drifblim and the Xatu arching through the air above them, or if they did, they ignored them. Not many people care about a ghost and a psychic in the face of a city-wide fire.

"_Why don't we just teleport there again_?"

"_Eclipse will at least be expecting you. He may have questionable goals, but strategically he is no fool. He will have set up wards against us, and unless he has brought a Defender across them himself, I sincerely doubt that we can cross by teleportation_."

The Xatu was silent for a moment. "_Ah_."

The Drifblim suddenly stopped.

"_What happened_?" asked his companion.

"_It would appear_," he said evenly, "_that Mewtwo was also wise of our approach_."

"_What do you mean_?"

The Drifblim deliberated for a beat. "_He has set up a psychic barrier in the shape of a sphere around us_."

"_And you didn't notice until just now_?"

"_I apologise, but it was several hundred metres in all directions_. _And Mewtwo is, de facto, in the third tier of legends_. _Most Defenders are in the fifth_."

"_This really_..."

"_Please refrain from repeating yourself. I find it a damaging habit that should only be performed in dire situations, if ever_."

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Diamond never made it to May. She'd decided to go slowly, taking her time so that she could set up a dense fog for the benefit of her enemy. Doubtless of her ally's ability, she had neglected to block Ash off. It surprised her to see an indistinct, warm blur rush past her, and even more for the Captain to appear right next to her.

"He just passed." It wasn't a question. Diamond nodded anyway, causing him to curse. "Well, Mewtwo's just detected that two Defenders are in the 'immediate vicinity', Zero's been spotted by a Xatu, and... the Chosen One likes making horrible puns. Keep that in mind when fighting him."

"What, did you honestly..."

He sighed. "_Yes_. Now let's go and take them on."

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My grip loosened on the chair for the third time, but this time I knew that there was no way out of this. The tornado was hungry, and I was the only one in a three-metre radius. Only a few seconds, and I would be flung into the core of the cyclone, to deal with the powerful winds without the help of a chair. As I considered this, some of the wooden floorboards were wrenched from the floor, and flew into the indoor storm.

I said the first thing that came to mind. "Why me?" As someone who looked very familiar smashed through the doorway and cried something angrily, I was torn from the seat and went hurtling into the cyclone.

0

"No!" I cried, seeing the Glaceon dragged into the vicious maelstrom in the middle of the room. Through some bizarre sense of intuition, I knew that she was May. I also knew that I had to follow her. So I did the first thing that came to mind. I ran- forwards, of course- letting the winds of the storm take me. A strange pillar flew towards me, and I lunged for it instinctively, not knowing what would happen. I wasn't expecting paradise, that was for sure.

0

A bolt of lightning hit me in the back, and I fell to the floor, spasms racking my body. My boiling eyes caught sight of two flying-types alighting on the pavement outside- don't ask me how I managed to see them through all that grime in the window and the seizures that ripped through me. It might have been that I'd heard one of them distinctly think, "_Gotcha_." The bastard.

Diamond, who'd been next to me at the time, had caught a bit of the bolt, although only enough to singe her dress a little bit.

"_Diamond_," I thought, using telepathy because my mouth was currently trying to bite my tongue off. "_Diamond, get May, dammit_!" She looked down, and seemed surprised that I was having spasms.

"Oh! Okay, sure... You okay down there?"

"_What the hell? Were you even paying attention? I was hit by a lightning bolt_!"

She bit her lip, obviously confused. "Sorry, I must have... zoned out... there."

"_Just go, dammit_!"

0

"Okay! We've got to go find that Xatu!" said Smear.

"Have you got a death wish? That thing could take us all on at once! Even Dark!" Control countered. The Honchkrow snorted and went back to preening his feathers, while Chair and Legion looked pretty inclined to agree.

The boy in green sighed. "Look at it this way. The Xatu knew what we're after, right?"

"Right," confirmed Control. "But how-"

Smear cut her off. "And he attacked us, right?"

"Sure..." said Control, seeing what was coming.

"And what do we know the clones can all do?"

"Turn into Pokemon. Like us," muttered Chair.

"What's a Xatu?"

"Look, Smear, that was _not _one of them."

"Where does a psychic bird learn how to speak?"

Control rolled her eyes. "You just said it- it's a psychic bird."

"I'm telling you, there's something up with that Xatu!"

She rolled her eyes again. "Next thing you'll be telling me that there's a war going on between some ancient guardians of time and space and the clones we're chasing."

0

I went flying into the air... and hit a tree. That in itself was odd, even rivalling my transformation into a Glaceon. I could have lain at the roots of that tree for ages, but the fact that I'd just flown into a tree made me edgier than normal. A quick glance around made me even edgier. I was in a weird forest, a stone pillar dominating the scene. It was unnaturally dull, like someone had put a lampshade over the sun. The eerie sunlight touched everything with a strange hue, making everything seem more ethereal and plain unreal.

Then I noticed the Gabite and the Grotle. The two were standing, staring at me, slack-jawed. I considered my available options. I could run, and never come back, but then I had no idea of what to expect. Or I could just hide behind a tree and try to see what was going to happen next.

0

The winds buffeted me for five or six seconds, then subsided. It wasn't that they stopped, but rather that they weren't blowing me around any more. I tried to figure it out, but gave up before I gave myself a brain haemorrhage. In front of me stood a stone pillar that looked pretty unobtrusive- except for the fact that it was split open through the middle. Experimentally, I pushed my hand into the gap, expecting it to hit a stone surface. Obviously I wasn't expecting the stone to suck me into it.

0

Ice flew from my fingertips, encasing my foes in a prison of coldness. My job done, I sprinted back up the stairs, having put up a teleportation block to hinder the two Defenders. To be honest, I had forgotten that the Obelisks were so important to their kind- more specifically, their Gate capabilities. My only use for them was a burglar alarm, personally. Not that I received many burglars at my island home. In fact, the number of uninvited visitors per decade had quadrupled in the last week, since I'd moved operations to Madison Avenue. Good thing I was blowing this place up, actually.

… I'm rambling, aren't I? So I was sprinting up the staircase, two steps at a time, just in time to see Diamond vanish into the Obelisk Room. I muttered a curse, picked up my old crowbar from a pile of recently extinguished rubble, and melted it to the doorway- hopefully it would deter the Defenders' attempts to get to the Obelisk for a while. White hot metal tends to do that to normal people and Pokemorphs.

I came to the entrance of the room. A single stone pillar was all that stood between me and the Dream World. Time seemed to stand still. I took a step, into the storm.

Like always, my natural fire typing helped me to ignore the plummeting temperature- which was probably a result of Diamond having passed through the Obelisk not two minutes earlier. The howling winds halted eight steps in, and I began to progress more cautiously, until I reached the Obelisk. Then I took a deep breath, collected myself, counted to four, and decided I couldn't stall any longer. I did what I'd been meaning to do since Zero and Oracle stole the Obelisk from Fort Iron on their first joint mission, and took a step forward.

The first thing I felt was pain. Searing, burning pain, much worse than a trifling lightning bolt or Improving myself until I could level one of my creators' bases with a kick. Far worse than travelling to the top of an ancient mountain to find members of what I once considered my kind. And then finding that they shunned me and saw me as an abomination, a terrible distortion of all that is good and right. The pain was... indescribable.

The second thing I felt was power. Raging like an unstoppable wildfire in a forest of death, the power consumed and fed me, drained and replenished my strength. In each cell of my body, I was dimly aware that this was the ultimate Improvement. But the power was enough to remove me from those thoughts, and I could feel it throbbing in each of my veins and arteries, threatening to burst from my body like lava from a volcano. That was real power.

Without either of the previous feelings vanishing, I felt the third thing. Destruction. This wasn't a human feeling, so I shifted to a better-adapted form to experience it properly. Wave after wave of grim satisfaction and unspeakable sadness washed over my body. I saw a thousand worlds die, and a thousand worlds rise from their ashes. I saw people dying and suffering, and I saw babies born and times of peace. Droughts, famines, fertility, joy and that feeling in between assaulted my senses. Then it stopped. And I left the Obelisk.

I flew out of the stone pillar, face first into a tree. I landed on something soft, although there were a few hard and pointy bits digging into my arms and back. Unable to see what I'd squashed, I twisted my head and sprung to my feet when I saw that I was squashing Diamond. I gave her my hand, and saw an Arcanine trying futilely to attack her. Almost with disdain, I pointed my open palm at it and used the first move that came to mind. A Dark Pulse. It scored a direct hit to the head, and the Arcanine flew backwards ten or twenty metres.

After helping Diamond to her feet, I brushed myself off, and checked out my surroundings. A bunch of trees, a Grotle and a Gabite, and something hiding behind a tree. Easy as cake.

0

Revert hurled a Thunderbolt at the ice still holding the Xatu captive. The frozen cage shattered, and the psychic stretched his wings, groaning.

"We must act with haste. The Spear and the Chosen One are already in the Dream World," said the Drifblim. "And so are our foes."

Nodding, Forward shifted into human form, a green-haired man in his early twenties. Revert, too, shifted into his human form. The old gentleman with a gleam of eccentricity in his eyes levitated off the floor and phased through the ceiling. His companion rolled his eyes and ran up the staircase that Eclipse had been guarding. The second floor was a scene of chaos. Most of the doors were on fire or otherwise badly damaged, and the whirlwind in the back room had grown since the last dark one had entered the Obelisk, tearing planks of wood from the floor. Revert glanced at Forward, and the twenty-two year old clenched his fist, before throwing a punch at the air in front of him. A sphere of crackling electricity flew from the closed hand, and as it made contact with the gale-force winds, the hurricane quelled. Soon only a weak sigh of wind protected the stone pillar in the middle of the room, and the two Defenders strode into the room.

"Will you do the honours?" asked Revert.

"Sure," answered the Seeker before bringing his hand down onto the pillar. A pulse of blue energy flew outwards from his fist, and the two vanished from the world they were in, and appeared in another.

0

The Gabite was ranting, and I decided to put a stop to it.

"So?" The surprised look on her face was priceless. "So what if I've broken all the rules of the prophecy? Arceus, and you haven't even noticed the Chosen One yet!" I knew instinctively that this would shut her up. I wasn't wrong. Always the opportunist, I used the Gabite's momentary speechlessness to ask Diamond something. "Hey, Diamond, what happened to May?"

"_Who_?"

(Insert facepalm here). "May. You know, that feline ice-type that just happens to be the most powerful weapon since Regigigas?"

"Oh. I don't know," she said, evidently not yet recovered from her brief zoning out. The Grotle seemed to be zoning out, too, and the Gabite was talking to it in hushed tones. I filed the knowledge away in my brain, and turned back to Diamond.

"Di, you forget. There are several Defenders in this area. Like, maybe everyone in a twelve metre radius?"

Still not acting quite herself, she said probably the stupidest thing I'd ever heard her say. "So?"

" So we-" Then I saw the Seeker. "Forget it."

Now that she could sense immediate danger, she followed my line of vision, and saw the Xatu as well. She bared her teeth, and a blue aura coated her hands. Then, to make matters even worse, we saw the Sensor, who was currently in Drifblim form. All we needed now was the Warper, and we'd have a full house. The Grotle and the Gabite had noticed the new arrivals as well, although both were too much out of it to do anything other than stare blankly, thank Arceus. The two Defenders had seen us and were floating towards me, apparently deciding that I was the greater threat. Idiots. My arm came up, and a Dark Pulse almost knocked the Xatu out of the air. He tumbled through the air for a second or five, and then stopped, righting himself. I saw what was coming next, and prepared myself for transformation. My foe shifted into Gallade form, and I grinned evilly. Or whatever you call a smirk. I stretched my arms until they were perpendicular to my torso, a process that took a second, and initiated transformation. In the real world, it would have taken two or three minutes, but there was power in the air, and I used it. The change took two seconds.

0

A Ho-oh stood regally in front of me, wings outstretched as if it were flying. Then bars of fire shot from the ground around the Xatu/Gallade, and I knew that it was still Nicholas, even if he was a Ho-oh. The battle between Diamond and the Drifblim was altogether more interesting. They traded blows and fireballs, electric bolts and blizzards. Diamond flung herself to one side to dodge a shadowy orb, then shocked her foe with a powerful electric charge. The Drifblim shook her attack off, then turned intangible as an Ice Beam tore through the air and almost hit him. Ghostly tendrils erupted from the ground underneath Diamond, and wrapped themselves around her ankles. She snapped her fingers, and ice raced down their length, all the way to the Drifblim that was connected to them. Now the Drifblim was partially frozen.

0

The Seeker was half-dead, so I deemed it safe to look around for the Spear. After only ten seconds, I saw the telltale signs of frost on a tree. Fire flew from my wings, and burned the tree the Glaceon was hiding behind to the ground, as well as May herself. When the Arcanine, who I guessed was Ash, saw this, he looked _pissed_. His snarl rising into a roaring crescendo, he charged me. I did the Ho-oh equivalent of a smirk, and a small fire tornado hurled the Chosen One away from me. By chance, the Arcanine flew towards the Sensor, and I hurled a Dark Pulse after the two for good measure. Lucky, really, because the Drifblim was forced to go intangible or get knocked out of the air. Dark Pulses always hit a ghost.

0

Now that all of the immediate dangers were down, I felt like shifting back in to human form and saying a corny line. "Hands high in the air, where we can see 'em!" The Grotle seemed to be at a loss with this demand, and then I noticed that, as a quadruped, the poor turtle had no arms to raise. "Vines, too! Vines up!" The Grotle put his vines in the air.

"What are you doing here? This is Defender-only land!" started the Gabite again.

I faked a thoughtful position, then countered her claim bluntly. "Not any more."

The land shark opened her mouth again to say something, but the Grotle rebuffed her without words. Unless... "A telepathic Grotle? Interesting."

"He's human in the other side," said the Gabite. "He has _not_ been 'Improved' by one of your kind."

Ignoring her, I tapped into the mental communications between the two and heard the end of a question.

… _mean?_

I surmised that he was asking what Improving meant. "You haven't explained our powers to your turtle friend? Some pal," I smirked. Diamond was staring boredly at the tree we'd crashed into, and I guessed that she was preparing to set it on fire or something. "Well, me and Diamond here are members of a super-race designed to combat _them_," I started, gesturing to the all of the Defenders in the area except for the Grotle. "We have the DNA of certain Pokemon in our bodies, and we share the common ability to Improve a Pokemon or person."

_Meaning?_ it asked.

"You see, most Pokemon and humans can only use around five percent of their brains. Psychics tend to be able to use ten to twelve percent, and Magikarp can only use one percent, but it's all really just a small portion. This is because of certain mental blocks in the brain."

I paused to take a breath. This explaining was hard. "But _we _can remove these blocks from a brain, allowing a human or a Pokemon to reach their full potential. We can give an Empoleon psychic powers, for example. Or increase the power of a Magikarp until it can defeat a Jolteon any day of the week. It could even be used to cause a spontaneous evolution!"

_What's the point?_

"Point? First off, it is _very_ useful in helping others," I said, while rapidly searching for an irrelevant example. "If your friend here liked to sing, but was disallowed to by her parents, for example, you could assist her in multiple ways. You could give her mind control powers, or even Improve her parents' singing abilities to show them how great it truly is. The possibilities are endless!"

The Gabite snorted. "You haven't mentioned that your favourite use of your power is to cause an illusion of excruciating pain."

"He doesn't need to know that," I said, realising that she didn't really know that her half-brother was also a Defender.

"He does if you're gonna try to recruiting him into your gang!"

I feigned confusion. "What would I need a Defender around me for?"

"He can... he can... Defender?" she stuttered in reply.

"Can't even recognise your own kind. How unfortunate. Your own half-brother, too!"

I'd just pressed her berserk button. Diamond, noticing the cue, stopped examining the tree like it was a particularly nasty Ekans and sidled to the edge of my line of vision. The Gabite hissed viciously, and managed to choke out a murderous 'shut up'.

I gave the second signal. "Honestly. Didn't two of the Original Defenders share a mother? Dock and Nettle, or something?"

The Gabite's expression sharply flitted from furious to confused to even more furious. The third signal. Diamond pointed a finger at the dragon-type, and in less than four seconds, she was frozen solid.

Using the information I'd picked up from their heads, I turned to the Grotle and said, "So, Bale is all that's left."

I gave him four seconds to reply, then noticed that something was keeping me out of his head. So he really was the Protector. "A psychic block? Well, that sucks. So... you must be the Protector." Bemusement flashed across the turtle's face, and I waited for a reply. When none came, I frowned.

"What're you waiting for? Say something."

Diamond shook her head. "Eclipse," she said, calling me the name- no, _designation_- I hated. "Forget it. It's probably just an ordinary Grotle."

"No, I'm sure that it used telepathy before," I argued, reassuring myself as much as her. "Absolutely- oh," I muttered, seeing what was happening. "Screw that bastard."

I was, of course, referring to the nearly unconscious Drifblim who was using his remaining strength to protect the Protector's mind from my own telepathy. Well, I though it was nearly unconscious. As my hand took aim at the ghost, it rose into the air as if it had never touched the ground in the first place, and unleashed a Whirlwind attack. I cupped my hands together and sent a Flamethrower shooting out to meet my foe, while Diamond unleashed an Ice Beam opposite me. Then I noticed my sister, Nicole, hovering in the air directly above the Drifblim. And a plan hatched in my sinister mind.

"_Coal_," I said with telepathy, "_Thunderbolt_!"

She agreed, and as the Sensor flew higher to avoid Diamond's and my attacks, her lightning bolt flew straight and true, knocking out the ghost.

Back on the ground, Coal told us how she'd made it here in record time. We were interrupted by my phone ringing. I flipped it open, and put the number pad to my ear.

"Wrong way, idiot. And you should change your ringtone. It ruins our image of enigmatic ambiguity," Nicole berated me. I rolled my eyes, and righted the phone.

"Yeah? Who's this?" I asked. The call screen had read 'Unknown' so I supposed that they were something to do with the Guild. Or a telemarketer.

"Have you done with the siege yet?" asked an unpleasantly familiar voice. The voice of the Lucario Guild's lowest officer, and so far the only one who was able to annoy me without snuffing it immediately. I wanted him to die slowly.

"No, we are still laying siege to Greengrove," I sighed sarcastically. "Look, what do you think? Can you hear screams? Inferno and his pack can take care of it."

"Where are you, then?"

"We're still in Greengrove."

"You do realise that there's a meeting on Arahaz in less than forty minutes, right?"

I sighed again. "Yeah, I know that there's a meeting in thirty-two minutes."

"Very well then. I will see you in thirty-two minutes."

"Bye!" I terminated the connection, then noticed something strange. "Wait a sec... how'd they call me? This is another plane of existence! There isn't a mobile phone signal here!"

Always the practical one, Nicole rolled her eyes and said, "How about we just go to their meeting."

So we left, forgetting all about Bale the Grotle.

0

Like Jirachi manipulating space, and Celebi travelling through time, Mew possess a superior ability to affect their environment. Like the other two members of their trio, the first of their kind has been rumoured to still exist in the wild, although, like the other two, this has neither been proved nor disproved. However, we have been able to capture a real life Mew, securing DNA samples from it before it died of exhaustion and trauma. The ability of Mew to transform and create matter has puzzled scientists and normal civilians alike for the centuries it has been recognised as the one hundred and fifty-first Pokemon. Seven years ago, Team Rocket researchers and geneticists developed a clone of a Mew on New Island. They called it Mewtwo, and made it as powerful as possible. The clone used it's power to destroy them.

A year after these disastrous events, scientists in the Experimental Division discovered the existence of natural Pokemorphs. They handed the task to historians, and before long, they found that there'd always been some Pokemorphs around, ever since humans started recording time, and probably before that. Giovanni, the boss of Team Rocket, heard this, and ordered the capture of two 'morphs. His best bounty hunters were unable to capture the elusive creatures, even in direct face-to-face combat, but in due course, one of them received a message from their inhuman quarries. The Pokemorphs were there to restore a balance, and so could not be captured. Giovanni ignored the warning, and set his scientists to create their own Pokemorphs. They already had a base in Mew, which was only strengthened when they found a treasure trove of files pertaining to Mewtwo, who had wiped their memories of him. Armed with this knowledge, the bio-engineers, geneticists, and biologists created seven unique living weapons. But, as with Mewtwo, they overshot, to put it bluntly. The problem, this time round, was not power. Yes, they had the DNA of immensely ancient Pokemon like Ho-oh and Lugia, Groudon and Kyogre in them. But power restrainers took care of that. The scientists had lost because of personality. The original Mewtwo was born savage, but philosophical. He had the usual number of personality defects one might have. But it would seem that the Mew we had taken the fur of was slightly unhinged. Or perhaps the mix of DNA in their bodies combined in just the correct way to create sarcastic, sadistic, psychotic sociopaths that despised all of humanity. And they were going to wipe it all out.

They proved their competence on the tenth of October, I believe, when at exactly six o'clock in the morning, the bases they were held hostage at exploded. No-one was harmed but Team Rocket members. And they were harmed quite badly.

Now the clones are loose, laying siege to the Apocalypse region. And unless our new batch of clones can stop them, no human will be alive by the end of this decade, if we are to believe our creations. And I believe we should.

- From the log of Dr. Goldeneye, shortly before his unexplained death in the year 2010

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**So, what do you have to say? Like it? Hate it? Indifferent?**


	13. Trying to Trap Trappers Doesn't Work

**Targets**

**A Pokemon Fanfiction**

**Would someone care to answer why no-one has read chapter 11? Grr...**

**Disclaimer: I do not own the Pokemon franchise in any way, shape, or form.**

0

"This morning, the lush city of Greengrove was crippled by a grave catastrophe. An army of Pokemon laid siege to the city, setting it on fire in multiple places, and obliterating many lives. Now trainers from all over the Apocalypse Archipelago are travelling to the city, to help with rescue and recovery operations, as well as driving any remaining attackers from the city. However, it seems that there are none left, as evidenced by their sudden retreat at twelve o'clock yesterday. The main troubles now are the increasingly worrying traces of dynamite and thermite in the roads and buildings of Greengrove. The theory that a group of elite trainers are taking over Apocalypse has not yet been ruled out, and is now falling into popular opinion. A number of the attackers must have at least been trained at least once in their lives, as shown by this image of a Nidoking using a Thunder to devastating effect. Soon after this photo was taken, the cameraman was mauled by a Machoke and a Houndoom working together, surviving only barely. The remaining citizens of Greengrove and all nearby cities have been gripped with unstable paranoia, and already people have reported an army of dragons making their way to the nearby Machina City. This is Sonia Lee, of Apocalypse News Network, handing over to Michael Lezzon at the scene of crime!" The camera blinked off, and in another city, another camera started recording. The news anchor stretched her arms, and her boss gave her a thumbs up.

"Excellent work, Sonia. The ratings will get higher yet with you on our crew!" John Kelvins commended her. "Well guys, let's go home now. The report's heading straight to battling and contests after Michael, so we're done here."

They certainly were, thought an Arbok, venomous fangs primed and dripping.

0

The boy and his Dragonite stood in a deserted alley, watched by two others. Glass littered the floor, which was poorly bricked and was missing several chunks of material. A dumpster was the only other feature in the alley.

"Knight, take Luna and Sol with you to Machina. Scare the hell out of them for a while, then when the main force arrives, target that Joel guy's Gym and the Centre next to it. I'm going to a Guild meeting down in Arahaz, and Zero and Oracle are coming with me. I might even pick up Arrow on the way- or would that be overkill?"

"Can do, Captain," replied the dragon mellowly, before taking off in the direction of the so far unnoticed flying boat in the sky. All alone now, the Captain unleashed a powerful Aura Sphere, knocking Control from her perch on a building. A conglomerate of purplish black circles formed in his hands, and seconds later, a finished Dark Pulse burst from his body and struck Control, throwing her into the building she had hidden herself on.

"Okay, Chair. We can do this the easy way," he cracked his knuckles threateningly, "or the hard way."

Paralysed with shock, the Grovyle in shining armour toppled from his own hiding spot, and landed squarely on his back next to the being known as Eclipse.

"H-How?" gagged Chair, ridiculously surprised. His answer was a Fire Spin that hopped from a mini-tornado in Eclipse's hand to a vicious twister on top of the grass-type. The instant that fire touched his body, the Grovyle began changing. Soon a Charmander stood in the middle of the flames, and Nicholas smiled wryly.

"How much PP does _that_ move have? You controlled clones are crazy," he taunted, before the floor beneath his foe erupted in a geyser of water from a water pipe deep under the street. The Charmander was lifted ten, twenty, thirty feet by the powerful Surf move, and to top it off, cracked his skull against a flying Skarmory. He dropped to floor for a second time, this time bleeding copiously from his head and arm, not to mention unconscious. "Arrow, let's go." The metal bird swooped down low, and Eclipse shifted into Umbreon form before leaping on to Arrow's back.

"We have a meeting to get to."

0

Stryke grinned vindictively, surveying the bay of Machina town. To the right of it, about ten or fifteen miles off, an army of dragon-type and draconian Pokemon were massing, collecting new recruits each day. Above it floated a familiar boat, property of the Captain himself. Soon his own army would be joining the legions that were going to do something never done before, and conquer an entire planet.

His subdued crew were idly pawing weapons. A wide variety there were too, knives, swords, forks and even a mace or two. The people who had never thought of guns or sharp objects as weapons were going to fall the very things they had failed to envision, alongside the creatures they had always thought of as weapons. Such was the cruel humour of the Captain and his dark legions.

0

The sun woke with me. Or maybe I woke with it. Whatever the case, the two of us woke at the same time. I gave a silent chuckle. Now I was referring to the sun as if it was a person or a Pokemon- probably my Arcanine thoughts mingling with my human ones. Revert had explained to us that the longer we stayed in Pokemon form, the longer it would take for the instincts of the individual Pokemon to lose their hold over our minds. It sounded bad, but being an Arcanine felt good. I didn't even remember why I was awake. Or was there no reason to begin with?

We'd been asleep for quite a bit, I noticed. We had all more or less fell asleep at sunset, so if it was sunrise, then... I suddenly realised something.

"Crap! We've been asleep for twelve hours!"

The Drifblim lazily opened an eye. "What would be so 'crap' about that, boy?"

"Nick- meeting- no time!"

"Of course there's time. We are currently existing on the Astral Plane- the Dream World," he said. "Time passes differently here than it does in the Ethereal Plane. At times one can journey to it, stay for a week, and find that his entry point is a year older than before. But more often, years _here_ will pass in a week _there_. This is one of those times. In the twelve hours we have slept, only five minutes have passed for Eclipse, Coal, and the others in the Ethereal Plane."

"So how do you know all this?"

"Dear boy, you must have forgotten. As the Sensor, I am able to communicate with those on the Tertiary Plane, who have no trouble travelling between the three base Planes and passing me information from other worlds. Spirits, it has been said, know everything. Perhaps it's not strictly true, but certainly all of the spirits' combined knowledge would give omniscience a run for it's money."

"What money?" I asked, a little cocky.

"'What money', indeed," he mused aloud.

0

"Surfing on a penguin, surfing on a penguin, yeah! I'm a-surfing on a penguin, gonna tell the world!" sang Oracle loudly as Zero cut through waves and water like a knife through butter.

"If you don't shut up, you won't be 'surfing on a penguin' much longer, Oracle," threatened a voice from above the two.

"Your Guild friends won't be too impressed by a sopping wet bodyguard!" joked Oracle, not that he wasn't already soaked by the salty sea spray.

"They'd be equally unimpressed by a singing Lucario," pointed out the Umbreon, safely dry atop Arrow's ironclad back. "Plus, I think that your horrible warbling is driving away the Wingull."

The fighter feigned offence. "Sah, I'd like to remind you that your singing isn't too great either!"

"Who's singing a song about surfing on a penguin in the ocean?"

Oracle decided to change the subject, although he still donned his strange accent. "Sah, I do believe that yonder island over there is Arahaz."

"It is, but that's no excuse to not answer my question."

0

At Number 3, Mawder Road, a small paper leaflet proclaiming the 'pure heart' of all Arahaz citizens hit Eclipse in the face for the second time in a minute as he prepared to cross a road indiscreetly and under the cover of daylight. He was undertaking this deadly operation on account of the Guild meeting in the building opposite him. Next to him, Oracle rolled his eyes, while Zero and Arrow just thought about it.

"Okay, fine, I'll find a fricking- whoah!" A bus sped past the four, almost hitting them. Not that it would do much against three of the most powerful agents of the dark legions, and their leader, other than annoy them. "Traffic light."

One stood only twenty metres away from them, blinking mischievously like a traffic light that has been described as a living creature, down to the descriptive verb. Continuing with the story, Eclipse strode over to it, and saw that the green man had vanished, instead replaced by a red man.

"Er... what does that mean?" the Captain asked his group uselessly.

A tall, imposing woman, smartly clad in a business suit, answered him. "Don't cross."

"You sure?" he asked her.

"Yes, of course I'm sure," she snapped irritably. "Are you coming or not?"

The traffic light had indeed changed colour again, and the green man shone welcomingly down on them. The woman crossed the road, not bothering to wait for a reply from her colleague. Zero, Oracle and Arrow stayed with their Captain, who was shaking his head disbelievingly.

"Red? Green? That makes no fricking sense. I swear, when I..." He descending into mumbling, fuming about the confusing lights.

"Sah, the light has just changed colour again," reported Oracle, struggling to keep a smile from spreading on his face.

"It- _what_? But the light was green a minute ago! This is crazy! Why are they doing this to us anyway? What's the point?" The light changed colour again, sparing the Captain's companions another rant. The four of them crossed the street, Eclipse using his psychic powers of projection to render them invisible. This area of town was seldom travelled through, and rumours, if nothing else, could spread through the city of Arahaz like wildfire.

0

"So, welcome to our new base in Arahaz. Who wants to report on their mission status first?" said the sublime head of the Lucario Guild, Revoir. A man of great charisma, he'd founded the Guild when he saw that people were willing to pay money for criminal services. Soon afterwards, he used his powers of persuasion and talent-spotting to locate several of the most capable bounty hunters and assassins in Apocalypse, including the Jenes, Melanie Greeves, and several other notorious criminals. He then started a quiet takeover of Arahaz Island and the surround area, and was able to set up several bases for his team- which he named after his favourite Pokemon- around the Archipelago.

Melanie, the woman who Eclipse had met at the traffic light earlier, raised her hand. "Well, I have found several potential clients in some gang calling themselves Team Rocket."

Eclipse and Coal hissed simultaneously, eyes narrowed. Seeing this, Revoir called Melanie to a halt. "Perhaps we should... cover a different subject. Jenes?"

"We have Swamp and Ken controlling Greengrove. We're aiming at Machina Town and that canyon up north."

"The Lucario Canyon?" asked Revoir, curiosity in his voice.

Coal shook her head. "No, the other one."

"Ah," he said, falling silent for a beat. "Anything else?"

"Nope," the two lied easily, knowing that Revoir would believe them. After all, who would expect two members of the Lucario Guild to be awakening legendaries?

Revoir considered this, then nodded to a fifth person. "What about you? Any advancements in the mission for that corrupt mayor?"

"I've completed well over two thirds of it. Should be finished in a week or so," answered the teenager, obviously bored. He was a knife specialist, able to hurl a sharp object three hundred metres and still hit the target. Although he was an orphan, and had been since he was a month old, people instinctively called him Dagger, for whatever reason. "They don't allow knives in the mansion, so it's going a bit slowly."

"Try and improvise," advised Eclipse, who happened to be sitting next to him. "A butter knife can work wonders."

Coal snorted, while Revoir looked contemplatively at the other, less high-up, members of the Guild. Bes, his secretary, Hale, another talent scout, and Dare, who was the main transport arrangement guy. Not that the top hunters needed transport anyway. Coal and her family seemed to be able to teleport at times, Melanie always had her team with her, and Sero was capable of a myriad of incredible feats, due to his rather strange lineage. Daggers was quite proficient at stealing cars and things, too, and had somehow picked up the ability to drive a jet plane at some point, unlike Coal and Eclipse, who had hijacked a boat or a blimp they didn't know how to drive a few too many times to be credible.

0

"We'll have to leave this place soon," said Revert over our crackling fire. When asked why, he indicated the worn stone pillar behind me. "The dark ones will be trying to destroy the Obelisk on their side. While they will be unsuccessful, it is highly probable that they will tamper with it so much that it's power will drain from it, or it will otherwise become unusable."

"Aren't there other ones?" asked the Gabite across from me. I nodded in silent agreement.

"Yes, but they will transport us to a country far too distant from either of our destinations. We could teleport from there, but it is likely that Coal has put up teleportation blocks and perhaps even a guard or two. We must tread carefully." As he spoke, a million possibilities flashed into my mind. Perhaps the Gardevoir would be there. If I used Tree, then it would be a very short battle... then I remembered that my Pokemon had been stolen.

"Guys, we need to find my Pokemon. We-" I stopped short. I'd left Pikachu outside of the building, with Brock. Both in the fire. "We need to get back. Now!"

The Gabite snapped angrily. "Hold it! What do you-" She was interrupted by the painful sound of a skull cracking, and realised that I had charged headlong into the Obelisk behind me.

"Pikachu... gotta get..." I mumbled on the floor, ears ringing like several thousand square kilometres of belltowers that were filled to the brim with Exploud, all of which had splinters in their feet, as well as hordes of Chingling and Loudred filling up the gaps in between the towers, which also had splinters in their feet. It was _loud_.

"What the hell is that racket?" asked May, her voice scarcely heard over the increasing din. It seemed like the inane sound wasn't just a by-product of my stupidity. As we listened closely (or in my case, tried not to listen at all), we found that the white noise was crescendoing. I could practically hear May grumble mentally, _Oh great, more noise_. Actually, she might have actually said it out loud. I lifted an orange paw to my nose, and noticed that it was bleeding, then recalled that I listened with my ears, usually. Just as I lifted my paws to my head, my eardrums practically exploded, and the sound suddenly stopped.

Bruised and battered with nothing but noise, I weakly opened one of my eyes. Most of my company were completely floored, except for a strange Mr. Mime that was standing where a Gallade once stood, looking into the sky. I scanned the clearing, and found most of the Pokemon around the modest ember (which was now flickering and sputtering pitifully) either unconscious or badly injured. Only Revert, who'd taken the form of a Drifblim, and Forward were nowhere to be seen.

"Over here," said the Mr. Mime. It's voice sounded oddly familiar, but it took me a moment to place it.

"Forward! But... what happened to you?"

"You know that Mr. Mime has the ability Soundproof, right?"

"It does?" I asked, surprised.

The clownish psychic-type shook his head mockingly. "Yes. I shifted into this odd form to avoid the attack."

"What was it?"

"Revert believes it to be a-"

"A Yanmega. Coal was clever. She unleashed an army of ancient Pokemon upon us, and they've already sealed off the exits from this universe with a prehistoric relic that seems to be able to deactivate Obelisks."

I parked myself in front of the stone pillar that had pulled us into this place and scratched my ear with one of my hind legs. "Can't we just reactivate it?"

The two Defenders exchanged incredulous glances. "'Can't we just reactivate it?' Do you know how an Obelisk works?"

"Sorta."

"We can't just 'reactivate' it from this side with all those traps around. We'll have to disarm them, then defeat the fossils heading our way."

I looked back at the Obelisk, and said, "How do we disarm a trap like that one?"

"Just leave it to us. Just leave it to _us_."

0

A rock flew from the pile of rubble amassed by the rescue workers, and hit one of them right in the middle of the head. He crumpled to the floor silently, and another stone went soaring into the air, once again knocking a worker unconscious. Still the assorted men and women in on the salvage task did not notice the enemy in their midst. Until an avalanche of rubble and shards of concrete crushed them with it's weight and sheer size. A boy in a green suit clambered from a vacant dump truck, and at a shrill whistle, thousands of buzzing insects left their rocks behind and merged back into human form.  
"Good work, Legion. Shame they aren't here..." A noise like a jet engine from some point below him interrupted the clone. The two leant forward to inspect the ground, not noticing the sudden drop in temperature, or the ground caving in beneath the buildings nearby. Smear experimentally tapped the ash-littered road with a knuckle, then, clearing glass from the asphalt in front of him, put his ear to the road. Hearing nothing strange, he got to his feet and beckoned Legion forward. When the familiar sound of buzzing did not start, he frowned and turned around. His companion was flat on the floor, each fly in his form encased in a thick sheet of ice. Before he could do anything but gawk at the unfortunate fate of Legion, the ground underneath him began to quake wildly, and then collapsed downwards, leaving a huge pit in the middle of the street, and revealing a massive blue and red creature. That looked _hungry_.

0

"Out of my way," demanded the girl. A Feraligatr and a Rhydon stood either side of her, the ground-type demonstrating what would happen to the Hitmonchan if he did not oblige. Sensibly, he backed away from the door he was meant to be guarding and hid behind a pot plant. "Hammer Arm on the door." The Rhydon obeyed the order, and slugged the solid steel with an even more solid blow. The door gave way easily, revealing a pulsing stone pillar in the middle of a huge forest. A Venusaur lumbered from the back room, and greeted them rather civilly. As the girl and her Pokemon stepped into the lush greenery, vines snaked from the ceiling and formed a thick net of vegetation in the doorway- the only way out would be fire or the roof.  
"Come out, Artemis!" A Pokeball flew into the air, and the girl's Scizor emerged from it in a burst of red energy.

"You've come prepared, girl. A Scizor..." mused the gargantuan grass-type, a chuckle in her rumbling voice. Then her face hardened. "You will not get past me."


	14. Wasteland

**Targets**

**I'd just like to take this opportunity to announce the starting of 'Firing Blind', a sort of prequel/sequel/accompanying story to Targets. It follows the journeys of another set of characters, and while only three or four will feature beyond a cameo or two, both stories are intristically linked. When it comes to it, Firing Blind probably started before Targets, only I've only written two chapters (and the second one is set at the end of the story). Expect it to be better-written than this. Actually, don't. Expectations are unhealthy things.**

0

Slash leered at his prey. The green suit didn't look very appetizing, but he figured that it would burn quite easily. The bugs that had inadvertently led him to the spot were totally immobilised by a clear substance that Slash had forgotten the name of. He knew what it was- it was the bane of his existence- but he hadn't a clue what it was _called_. Of course, that didn't matter, not with prey on it's backside with no means of escape. Recalling the small animal clad in green, Slash turned around to face it. The creature still hadn't moved, so the dragon considered it an easy win and struck with a powerful blow. It left a crack in the earth, but suddenly the creature wasn't there any more. Slash growled, glancing around furtively. What had taken his meal? As if in answer, a different animal sprung from the dirt, and starting running from the wide-eyed dragon. This one was also green, but was smaller, and had a red zigzag pattern around it's waist. The creature looked slightly reptilian, although it could have been an illusion. The only other thing Slash knew about the animal was that the green parts looked _very_ appetizing.

His eyes narrowed, and a bolt of lightning shot from the sky and hit the creature head-on. He bounded over to the body, and saw that it had vanished, just like the first one. What was going on? Reflex made him spring backwards as a gargantuan blue and beige thing exploded from nowhere. Safely six or seven metres from the new arrival, Slash observed the creature, body tensed, and claws poised. The beast let out a bellowing roar and sluggishly swung a fist at the dragon. It's blow fell five metres short.

Slash bared his teeth, the corners of his mouth turning up slightly. This was going to be easy.

0

The Arbok slithered from a cargo hold, unnoticed by sailors and dockworkers absorbed in their jobs. It crawled past piers and slipways, saltwater from the hold lubricating the snake's body as it travelled. A moment later, the Arbok halted in front of a lonely boat, black sails billowing in the fierce wind. The moon had risen, and now shone it's light on the rows of customs buildings, warehouses, and docking cranes. A Weavile, standing guard, nodded admission to the hulking reptile, and it continued stealthily.

The defining feature of this pier, right at the end of the entire dock, was that there were no humans on it. The entire staff was made up of Pokemon. The boat was completely motorless, instead relying on the wind, and on tranquil days, the rowing of dozens of crewmembers. A Gardevoir glided from a converted shed, having sensed the Arbok's approach.

"What is it, Guile?" she asked, despite the fact that she already knew his answer.

His forked tongue darted from his mouth, and he squirmed, slightly but noticeably. "Mistress, there seems to be added security in this city now that Greengrove has fallen."

"You were able to infiltrate the news station with no trouble."

"That was a _news_ station," Guile replied. "Machinima's government would not waste resources on the bane of it's existence."

Her eyes narrowed. "He dies. Monday. Not a minute later. End. Of. Story."

0

Oracle cocked an eyebrow. "A mission? Now? When you need to find that thing with the ice?"

"Are you implying that _Revoir_, of all people, would suspect me?"

"No, I'm just saying..." The two of them, with Zero, were walking down a deserted street. As they passed a couple of dumpsters, the Captain's reply was interrupted by a tinny clattering sound. _Probably just a Rattata or Raticate going through rubbish_.

"This Jeremy Ducky thing will work out fine. Find him, kill his rival or whatever, collect the cash, and kill him. Easy," smirked the Captain. A phone started ringing. "The hell is this?" he asked into the mouthpiece.

"This is a sworn foe of yours," rasped the phone, the voice slightly echoing. "I am holding a gun, and can fire at you from my current position. Tell me your plans in five seconds. Four..."

The Captain frowned. "I could just sweep this place with a Dark Pulse, you know."

"My body absorbs dark matter, fool."

His frown suddenly morphed into a smile. "Actually, the joke's on you now." Before the person on the other end could figure the statement out, black and yellow fur sprouted from his skin, and he dropped onto all fours. Black ears ringed with gold shot from the back of his head, and a tail with the same colours extended from his backside. His clothes fell off him, and a orb of shadowy energy formed in front of his now-foxlike face.

"_Shadow Ball_!" The attack flew from him, and right at a nondescript trash can more than twenty metres from them. On impact, it exploded violently, splitting the trash can cleanly in half, and hurling a person inside it in the direction of a brick wall. At once, the Umbreon's escorts hurried towards the body that had flown from the bin, and a Skarmory perched on a belltower gave up the guise of a gargoyle to check on it too. The Umbreon rolled his eyes and bounded over to the congregated steel-types. "Oi, let me through."

They parted, and he walked into the circle that his comrades had formed. Blood had formed a puddle at the body's head, and now that he looked closely at it, he saw that it was- had been- male. Shards of bone decorated the area where he had impacted with the wall, and flecks of blood dotted a dumpster nearby. It would be pretty hard to cover this up without a conspicuous sheet of tarpaulin or similar material. "Zero, we need a Surf. Oracle, Arrow, take cover."

As the water swept over the body and the bits of bone and blood, fire erupted from the Umbreon's back, before swirling into a gigantic funnel of flame. With smooth, almost liquid movement, it hopped from undamaged fur and onto the whirlpool from Zero's Surf. As the fire and water mixed, the body was incinerated and the ashes dissolved into atoms, then poured into the drains and sewers.

"That was... quick."

0

The first sign of the fossils was a barren wasteland. We'd tried disarming the traps, but when Forward and Revert owned up and admitted, shamefacedly, that they didn't really know what they were doing, we decided to face off against the prehistoric army. May and the other two had woken up by then, of course. So we'd marched through trees and past rivers, between mountains and over glaciers. We'd just passed through an overgrown grove of bamboo trees when the stark brownness of the land ahead staggered us like a physical blow.

"What the hell happened?" gasped May.

The Drifblim sighed sorrowfully and responded with a gesture at the mountains ahead. "Mamoswine and Yanmega. I suspect Kabutops involvement too," he added, with a glance at deep gashes in the ground.

"They destroyed all of the trees here? Why would they do such a thing?"

"Coal's orders, most likely. It is not their usual instinct, I can tell you."

I scanned the lifeless land. "What's the point of killing a forest?"

"So that we cannot hide from the Aeordactyl."

0

A column of humans was leaving the City of Fertility, many carrying others. In all, maybe thirty thousand humans out of a few million had survived the attack- less than one per cent. There were still trainers in Greengrove, trying futilely to save the city, but after a threatening televised message delivered by a tied up ten-year-old girl with a gun aimed at her head, the vast majority of the population had fled the city. The mayor (and anyone else of high political standing, including the unofficial Gym Leader) was dead, body savaged by a Houndoom and then incinerated. Presumably by the same Houndoom, although the fire that had coincidentally struck the city that day could have helped.

In the wrecked gatehouse, a man stood still, clutching a Pokeball. A radio was on, playing quieted music, and a huge hole blasted into the only surviving wall revealed a scene of chaos. Pokemon of every shape and size lumbered, scurried, or glided around, in the work of clearing roads and doorways for this city to be fully accessible. From the inside, at least. As the man watched, a Blastoise and a Nidoking fired a combined attack at a steel door. The metal crumpled with the force of the attack, and was tossed carelessly to the side. A pair of Machoke in the process of removing a hefty metal beam narrowly avoided having their heads taken off by the missile, and a Rattata, seeking scraps of edible material, was crushed by it. The blood that squirted from underneath the sheet of steel was lapped up by a pack of Poochyena, and the very act made the man's stomach squirm with revulsion. The archipelago was indeed the bringer of Apocalypse.

Behind him, more than a kilometre away, twenty-three dragons peeled off from the end of a squad of airborne guards to meet the column of humans, who they were determined would not find solace in reaching Machinima. If they ever did.

0

**The man in the end is either going to become a main character and live a long life, or else be killed off in the next six or eight chapters, starring profusely in all of them until his horrible death. Just to calm any fears for or about him you may have.**

**On an unrelated note, review, review, review!**


	15. All Dead, All Dead

**Targets**

0

Jeremy P. Destille, head of Machinima Sea Drilling Corporation, strode out of the lobby of his personal building and straight into a polished limousine. After seating himself in one of the white leather sofas, he gave a signal to his chauffeur to start the car up.

"Seaview Pier, Allen. Right up to the slipway. I have an appointment."

The broad and imposing native of Arahaz nodded curtly, before twisting a jewelled key in the ignition. At once, the powerful ten-piston engine roared into life, startling a few Wingull that had perched on the sleek bonnet moments before. The driver pushed his foot ever-so-slightly downwards, and the car all but leaped forwards, tearing down streets and roads at speeds that would have the fastest of Rapidash envious. In less than ten minutes, they had made it to the pier, a trip that should have taken more than twenty. This, though, was the norm for the ever-rich Jeremy, even when he was a child and his father headed his company. He gave the chauffeur permission to leave, then walked up to the edge of the stone docking bay. With a drop of ten or so metres just before him, he sat down and awaited the arrival of an agent, who, he was told, was probably one of the best in Apocalypse. He hoped his informers were right.

0

Cutting through waves at speeds rivalling a speedboat, Zero propelled his passenger and himself through the brine. As the sprawling metropolis of Machinima loomed ahead, the boy on his back shouted encouragement to him.

"Nearly there! Only four hundred more metres!"

"Come on, another two hundred to go!"

"You're almost here! Fifty... forty... thirty..."

The memory ended when Zero stopped at the slipway at Seaview Pier, not even tired from his journey across the ocean. Once, his muscles would have been aching and his Captain would have given him a few snacks as a reward, then taken him to a seafood restaurant where he would be allowed to eat anything under two hundred dollars. Since nothing there was over fifty, he had much to eat.

Not now. Now that the swim against currents no more tired him than a trip to a fish and chips shop fifty metres away, the Captain just thanked him and gave him free run of the area around Seaview Pier, so long as he was back when the Captain was. Zero respected that, liked it almost, but it seemed to be a little sad, being at the lonely, lonely top. He wasn't the only one.

Nick hauled himself from the edge of the pier, shocking a couple (who were about to do some romantic stuff) into retreating to a more private place, and scoured the area with his eyes, looking for a man wearing a white button-up shirt with a collar, suave trousers, and what Revoir had called loafers. Before trying to find the guy, Nick had Googled the word, and all he'd come up with were weird brown shoes that seemed to have little or nothing to do with bread. Finding a guy with the right shirt had been pretty easy, considering there was only on person on the beach wearing white- it was reserved for the upper-class and rich in the Cities of Prosperity. He sauntered over to the man sitting on the edge of a stone thing that he assumed was the pier, and said "Jeremy Duckstille?" Very loudly. In poor Jeremy's ear.

"I think you mean Dastille," the man smiled thinly. He had not been expecting an obnoxious teenaged boy. With purple eyes. That would stand out.

The boy seemed to be on the same wavelength as him, though, and he pulled a pair of sunglasses slowly and deliberately from his back pocket. "So, what's the job?" he asked, quietly, psychic powers digging through piles of trivia on drill makes and the location of oil platforms for the job Jeremy wanted him to do.

"Why don't we do this inside," Dastille suggested. "There'll be far fewer prying eyes- and _ears_."

0

Chair grunted and painfully hauled himself into a sitting position. Well, Smear's great plan had backfired stupendously. Splitting up to seek out the clones in groups of two had been a very bad move. Even without considering the massive army that the originals had amassed, the newer clones were still outnumbered by one. And in quiet, small-scale wars like these, exact numbers mattered. They mattered very much.

Still smarting from the skull-splitting collision with a bird covered in metal, Chair meditated over his current position. Control was unconscious, barely alive, and the two were in a dark alleyway while the city was on full alert. Probably not the best place to hide out in current circumstances, he noted. But where else was there? For starters, Control was too weak to move, and was out cold anyway. There were probably still original clones as well as police officers prowling the streets, and he had no idea where Smear and the others were. Dark was meant to have fired a signal into the air a few minutes ago, and Legion too. In short, not a very good position. And what if one or more of them was dead? Then what? In fact, Control could be dying this very minute, and he had no idea.

The Grovyle, no longer clad in his suit of heavy armour (it was lying a few metres from him, crumpled into a heap of scrap metal), groaned despairingly and butted his head against a wall. It was all up to him now, but what if he made the wrong call? Giovanni would blame it on him, and he'd probably get executed - or worse.

0

Weary, a small yellow creature with a tail shaped like a lightning bolt weakly climbed to his feet. Crowds of Rattata were surrounding him, but a feeble Thundershock dispersed them quickly. The effort made him drop to the paved street again.

Images rushed through his mind. A tiny clearing, others of his kind, so distant it had the feel of a dream. A man, holding two red and white spheres, and a flash of red... Then blackness for a few minutes, or was it hours, or days? Another light, and a strange human with spiky hair and green clothes. Being pulled along with a rope, then being chased by a bird. Pink rubber gloves, a redhead girl, a bicycle ride to escape from a flock of vicious beaks and claws. Blinding lightning, then darkness.

Incessant beeping. A trio of strange beings and a flood of red and white. A sudden burst of energy, a strike of electricity, and the three creatures were gone. A smile from the strange boy, no longer in green but now wearing a red and white cap, blue jacket, jeans and a green backpack. A feeling of fullness, accomplishment. He wasn't too sure of what he'd done, but he was glad that he'd done it. The girl he remembered had reappeared, yelling about something while brandishing a fried bike.

A green thing about his size. It had a pink horn on it's head that split off into two prongs, and two large eyes. The girl had screamed, and the boy had thrown a red and white ball at it. It had vanished inside, and the boy picked the ball up and threw it on to the ground, shouting triumphantly.

The electric rodent gave a shuddering gasp, stinging his dry throat. He remembered. He remembered! The boy- Ash. He had to find him. It didn't matter how or why, he just had to find the boy. Ash would provide answers.

0

"Thought, report."

The human looked up from the display screen in front of him, eyes taking in the steel behemoth before him. "There has been fifth-tier activity on Abate. Options are; one, send a second-tier agent to deal with it. Two, take no action further than sending a probe to the planet surface. Three, ignore the activity. Four, summarise the data and refer it to a higher council. Four is recommended."

Dialga, Temporal Lord of Annual, considered this information. On the one hand, option one was definitely the most secure choice, safety-wise. However, this discussion was being recorded, and failure to adhere to recommendations, especially advice pertaining to higher councils, could be viewed unfavourably by Examiners making their routine millennial observations.

"Check source," he decided. He would know the informant, if nothing else.

"Abate Satellites B, C and H have each independently discovered the activity. Abate Satellites A through to M, and Q through to Y have confirmed the data. Probes Coalition, Nitrogen, and Axiom have been dispatched to monitor from orbit, and so far data has matched. Options were generated by the Millionaire Engine based in Amass. Permission to continue?"

"Affirmative," sighed the Temporal Lord. This was rapidly becoming tedious, but he had to know if any of his rivals had a hand in the creation of the file.

"Operations Knossos and Crete are currently reviewing the data, and Contractual Divisions are also looking into the sources. End of history." Thought minimised the application window, and returned to scrutinising his Lord.

If Dialga had designed to have hands, he would have sunk his head into them. This data was thoroughly frustrating and disappointing. This file was indeed truthful, if Knossos was sifting through the file as well, and anything involving Contractual Divisions was bound to be important.

"Contact the Board of Ministers," muttered the dragon lifelessly, "and arrange for the data to be reviewed by next month."

"Affirmative," confirmed Thought.

0

The platoon of dragons descended upon the travellers, some already unleashing draconian meteors and bolts of lightning. A man at the front writhed in pain, electricity coursing through his body, frying his organs, dropping to the floor as he expired. The twenty-six thousand people behind him halted immediately, uncomprehending. Then the penny dropped, and twenty-six thousand people screamed and scattered.

Many of them were quickly taken out by Hyper Beams and other attacks, but a few trainers- including a late arrival from the city- had been able to stabilise with their Pokemon and mount a defence of the people. Ice Beams were flung at the dragons, and two fell from the sky immediately, frozen solid. A Salamence roared frustratedly, sending a plume of searing fire at the trainers, which was quickly deflected by a water attack from a Blastoise. More dragons started firing off beams and rays at the determined humans, each one harmlessly countered by an opposing element. What should have been a simple and easy operation was rapidly morphing into a massive problem, reflected the leader, a low-ranking Dragonite with high aspirations. Already half of their company had fallen, most of them dead from hypothermia or the impact of the fall. As he threw a punch at a Flamethrower attack, watching it fizzle into nothingness, he considered his options. Continue fighting and fall, dealing impressive damage, or retreat with the survivors, who now numbered- he did a quick head count- eight. Retreat is was, he decided, as he bellowed the command to his fellow dragons. They could deal with the homeless later, although the higher-ups would not be pleased with such a drastic loss. One thing was clear. The humans could not be allowed to reach the city, or the dragon army would not survive.

0

The survivors feasted well on the first night, roasting the plentiful flesh of the fallen dragons on spits and barbecues. A dragon's heart, stuffed with spices and herbs, was presented to the heroes of the day, the trainers who had driven the dragons away from the group, and it was taken with no small amount of modesty.

"They'll be back, though. Never met a group of dragons that didn't," muttered a tough-skinned trainer that might have been thirty, but had sorrowful, bitter eyes. The rest of the saviours silently agreed with him, showing without words or gestures that they accepted the fact. The dragons had been humiliated by mere humans, and were most likely trying to rouse others of their kind into supporting their cause.

Another trainer cleared his throat. "What worries me the most is how a group of such rare Pokemon got into a gang of at least fifteen."

"There is an army rising. This time next year, humans will be have been driven to the farthest corner of the year. This time in twelve years, humans will have died out completely. Unless we defeat this army, there is little hope for mankind," an ominous voice proclaimed, quiet but crystal clear. Twelve heads swivelled to locate the source of the voice, a man wearing an ill-fitting trench coat, baggy jeans, no shoes, and a Spearow perched on his shoulder. "You may question how I know this. I am an enemy of the Defenders, and I am called Memory. My job is to preserve the cycle of life and death, and block all those who would destroy it. When the seven Defenders united here, I too was brought to this planet, in order to prevent the prophecy. You must help save the balance from implosion, explosion, and any other threats to it. It is _vital_."

The trainer with sad eyes rolled said eyes. "What makes you so sure of this. For all we know, you're just a raving lunatic with a _bird_."

"Really?" the man replied wryly.

0

Sol and the others saw the battle. They'd watched, surprised but not amazed, as the humans managed to enter into combat with the platoon, and then win against them. Then the passengers of the floating ship shook their heads and continued on their way to Machinima, following the trickle of green, orange, blue, red and purple as it wound it's way over sand dunes and cliffs.

The Gallade chuckled deeply, vaguely amused by the failure of the low-ranked dragons. "I trust we still know where the allies of the Ho-oh are?"

"If you're asking about the guys we took from the trainer, they're in a storage locker somewhere on this ship," answered Ken, eyes shut as he memorised the vision of a Salamence plummeting to the sand, wings iced over. This was certainly something to laugh at Knight about. So much for the superiority of dragons. The two fighters silently wondered if word of the battle had gotten to the Dragonite yet, leading the column as he was. "I wonder what the Captain's doing now," mused Sol.

0

In the very city that Sol was heading to, and indeed intending to destroy, the Captain listened passively as Jeremy Dastille outlined his rival. Black hair? Check. Rimless glasses? Check. Annoying habit of taking out a calculator to figure out generally useless sums and equations? Check. In fact, the guy had been killed as he keyed a few numbers in to the stupid thing.

"Is there any chance that this guy works with the news?" Eclipse asked nonchalantly, examining his nails.

Dastille shut up immediately. "How did you know?"

"He died Friday evening. As he left his office after a hard day's work, something poisonous punctured the skin on his wrist, killing him in a matter of minutes. An unfortunate accident."

The successful enterpriser nodded acceptingly, sure that it was as much an accident as he was a woman. But such things did not concern him- the important thing was that Kelvins had bit the dust. Eclipse, meanwhile, had other ideas. People, influenced by Luna's capable powers of control, were leaving the restaurant at an accelerating rate, until only the waiters and chefs remained. They were quickly subdued, electricity from an unseen source frying their bodies. Then Luna, who'd been hovering outside disguised as a punk teenager, floated into the building, and Amp, wearing endearing sunglasses and a waiter's suit, hopped from an unused oven. Jeremy felt the atmosphere change immediately, and raised an arm in self-defence, but for him it was already far too late. A psychic burst of energy, combined with a formidable bolt of lightning, struck Dastille in the chest, freezing his heart. The last thing he heard was the mercenary telling the Pokemon to search his pockets and clothes lining for money and jewels.

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The fight was not going well. Almost as soon as they had lit a campfire underneath the canopy of leaves, a patrol of Kabutops and Aerodactyl came to investigate the source of the smoke.

After a comical moment of mutual shock and confusion, the fossils attacked. Jericho had gone down in the first fifteen seconds, and the Glaceon- May- quickly followed. Ash, despite his type disadvantages, was doing exceptionally well, and I was getting the hang of forcing vines to erupt from the ground and wind themselves around the enemies' feet. Forward and Revert were taking care of the airborne opposition, although every now and then a Hyper Beam from above would go wide and narrowly miss us on the ground. For all this, we were still losing. Although at least half of our foes had fallen, the ones that remained were far more cunning and powerful than the dead ones, so we were forced back a considerable distance by the scything arms of the Kabutops.

I twisted my cumbersome body to absorb a blow from the flat side of a scythe, then used a vine to snake from my back and wrap my current assailant in an unforgiving prison of vegetation. Ash quickly Solarbeamed it, and another one hit the ground, dead or at least unconscious. Now, at last, the numbers and ferocity of the Kabutops was thinning, and we were pretty much lynching them. Another Grass Knot flung another blade-armed fossil onto the floor, where more vines and twigs set to work, draining energy from them swiftly, painlessly. With each globe of pulsing green energy, I regained heath and power, making me nigh invincible. At least until the Kabutops expired.

Before, when all that mattered to me were the badges of Sinnoh, I had never considered death. No-one I'd been close to had died, not ever, and so there had been no cause for thinking about it. Obviously I knew that murder was wrong, and anyone who committed it should be in jail, but while I was traversing the Sinnoh region, I didn't think about it. Now it was easy. I supposed being a Pokemon had something to do with it- after all, even a low-level Rattata will fight, if pressured enough. Pokemon seemed more... accepting of violence, if not actively encouraging it. I shook my green head as more Kabutops collapsed around me, smiling placidly. This philosophy was unbecoming of me. All there was was the fight.

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	16. E is for Enemies and Extinction

**Targets**

**Nothing much up here but the obvious. Review, or a cat will die. Horribly.**

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Almost as soon as the last fossil fell and the Drifblim landed, _she_ appeared. Flying, and speeding towards me at speeds that even I had trouble following. It was a wonder that anyone else knew what was going on. Revert tried to throw himself in her path, but she was far too fast for him, and in a second I was airborne, on the back of the detestable Nicole.

"Now," she muttered, "don't go around having bad thoughts about me!" She was holding onto my forelegs to keep me from flying off into the horizon, but I still had my mouth on me. A moment later, and salty blood was hot in my mouth, staining my teeth scarlet. "Mother-" she cursed, swinging an arm haphazardly backwards to subdue me. It partially worked, as she struck my jaw, leaving a painful bruise there. Of course, now my foreleg was free, and I wasted no time in digging three vicious claws into her upper arm, drawing more blood.

Now we were both twisting crazily in the air, bringing a whole new meaning to the phrase 'aerial dogfight'. My foreleg was tearing her arm off, while one of her arms- which happened to be rapidly extending and growing white feathers- was bashing me on the head and back, attempting to subdue me while also avoiding knocking me from her back and down to the distant, distant ground...

That was when I discovered that Arcanine had vertigo, or acrophobia, or whatever you call it. The rest of the flight was uneventful, except for Nicole muttering about the claws still embedded in her arm, and a queasy sinking feeling in my gut- although I wasn't falling yet.

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"_Where'd Ash go_?" I asked, my Grotle brain struggling to comprehend the blur that had heralded the Arcanine's sudden disappearance.

May and Jericho were still pretty much out of it, exhausted from the battle against the fossils. Forward also seemed confused as to what had happened, leaving Revert to explain. "Coal has taken him."

I blinked. "_Why would she do that_?"

"I strongly suspect that she wants to make a deal with him," started the Drifblim. "She may have something that is important to him." Behind Revert, the Glaceon muttered something in her half-conscious state. Something about a sneeze, or maybe a shoe. Fool, food, pool, poo, screw, do, chew- my mouth snapped open like a steel trap in reverse. "His Pikachu!"

The lower jaw of Forward dropped comically, and Revert gave a start. Then I did, too, when I realised what had just gone down. "I can speak. I can speak again!" I might have broke out into a clumsy dance of celebration then and there, but of course the two Defenders recalled what I had actually said.

"That makes sense," Forward mused, Revert bobbing up and down in the air in agreement.

Then a dozen Sableye and Weavile skittered from the shadows underneath the remaining trees, hissing and spitting like death. To us, they may as well have been death itself.

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We were heading for a column of Anorith and Bastiodon, and a horde of Yanmega swooped up to intercept us. Or at least, that's what I thought until I recalled who I was with. As we approached them, the swarm parted through the middle to admit us, keeping a solemn silence even as their wings beat. Who knew that something so noisy could be so quiet?

The lines of Yanmega ended abruptly, and then I saw the real destination that Nicole had in mind. A stone pillar floated tranquilly in the air, an electric blue aura coating it. The ancient Pokemon kept their distance from it, most likely because of the whirlwind that could be seen kicking up sand, even from far away. "Yes," said Nicole, reading my mind, "We're going back to the real world."

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At the top of the world, in a place where humans are nothing but a child's tale, there is a prison, operated and controlled by a flock of Empoleon called the Keepers of Salbier. Next to this prison, a mountain covered in ice stands, housing thousands of crystalline structures. Inside the largest of these structures lives an icy being, the Golem of the North. It has been sealed inside the caverns of ice for aeons, since the world was formed. Few know what purpose it was crafted for, and even fewer know that it is there in the first place. For the Golem is one of three, but there are many sets of three, all but one of which are decoys. The Golem at Salbier, along with it's fellow setmembers, must be present for the Chamber of Planets to be unlocked.

All this was running through the head of Zephyr as he swept through ice-walled corridor after ice-walled corridor, routinely glancing at the piece of marble in his hand to see if the right cavern was nearby. For the past few hours, it had maintained a steady blue hue, neither brightening nor dimming even once. The Charizard was understandably relieved when it finally intensified, illuminating the nearby icicles and crystals with it's turquoise light. He set off a small Flame Wheel, revealing his prize- the entrance chamber of the Northern Cavern. A quick glance to check if his tail flame was bright enough, and he inserted the cold stone into a surprisingly well-kept hollow in an icy wall. A flash of blue light scorched his eyes, and he shut them half a second too late. Temporarily blind, he waited cautiously, listening to the dripping of melting ice as his tail emanated heat. In the space of half a minute, he felt the power of sight return, and his scaly eyelids flicked open.

A vast canyon stretched out before him, a prism-like object reflecting and refracting light to flood the room with thousands of rays of colour, no two lines parallel. Seven blue dots on the prism, arranged to form a pattern not all too different from a stretched-out plus sign, flashed without warning, almost blinding the orange dragon again.

"WHO. ARE. YOU." The voice came from everywhere at once, like someone shouting in a cave with a loud echo, but was strangely quiet.

"I am Zephyr, an envoy of the Captain. I come in piece, with a part of you." So saying, he brandished the slab of marble that had revealed the chamber itself.

"WHY. DO. YOU. BRING. ME. GIFTS." Again the voice reverberated inside the cavern, and the Charizard was beginning to suspect that it was using some form of telepathy.

"We'd like you to aid us," said Zephyr, still holding the slab like it was a shield. "In a worthy cause," he added as an afterthought.

The prism seemed to nod at this, though how it managed to without a head or a neck was something that no-one who had ever met the prism had ever figured out. It was just one of those mysteries. "WHAT. KIND. OF. WORTH. E. CAUSE." By the third sentence, Zephyr had worked out two things. One, the things seemed to be on 'perpetual question' mode, and two, although all of it's words so far had been phrased as a question, there didn't seem to be any question marks- in other words, it's voice was totally inflectionless. Charizards don't really need to know that such words exist, of course. It's enough for them to go out on a limb to find the prisms, let alone describe how they speak.

"The Captain and his followers- me included- are, um, trying to-" The prism was somehow staring at him intently, and despite the obvious lack of eyes, Zephyr could feel the ice-cold gaze burning into him like drills. How ice burned, Zephyr had no idea.

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"Well. It's like this. We, as a cohesive family unit," said Nicole, indicating a piece of paper which read 'us' in rather messy handwriting, "are trying to do something." She was standing next to a Lucario, one that felt slightly familiar. It had been in the hut since we had arrived, but something about him made me think of jetlag.

"What's this 'something'?" I asked immediately. Call me rude, but I was being held here against my will.

I'd been taken to the floating Obelisk by the flying psychopath, and we'd appeared on a cliff on an apparently deserted island in the middle of the ocean. There, Nicole had half led, half dragged me to the hut where we were now, and extracted a couple of whiteboards and half-dry markers, as well as a few scraps of paper, from a basement. Now she was showing me what her great plan was, and how it would benefit me, her, and the rest of the world.

"Well... it starts with the letter 'e'," she started, acting almost... hesitant, I decided. She didn't really want to be doing this. It must have been her lucky day, though, because almost ten seconds after she'd spoken, the air around her blurred, and her equally psychopathic twin brother appeared for the ride.

"Loads of things start with 'e'," I said. "Evil, Electrike, endings, eggs."

"Extinction. 'E' is for extinction." A smirk flashed across his face as realisation dawned on me at the speed of a Shellos.

"Say what?"

"Extinction. We're going to kill all three billion people currently on this planet. So to speak." His leery grin widened as he saw the effect of his words on my face. He probably would have gloated more, but a painfully familiar whine and a less familiar crunching sound forced him to glance out a grimy window and reel in surprise. Turning to his sister, he snapped, "What in the name of Arceus is _that_?"

Curious, I stole a glance through the dust-covered glass, expecting to see nothing but a Yanmega. Or a swarm of the things. Instead, the view was pretty similar to the fire in Greengrove. Minus the fire, naturally. Something absolutely _massive_ was swatting giant dragonflies from the air like a giant flyswatter, and as I stared in total awe, one of the Yanmega hurtled into the hut, tearing a gaping hole in the ceiling. The impact brought me back to my immediate surroundings, and I finally noticed that both of my captors were gone. That was good. That was very good. For a moment I found myself wishing that this flyswatter could have waited a day or two, so that I could have figured out an escape plan, but I rapidly reconsidered when I recalled previous 'amazing' plans of escape. Either way, the path to the Obelisk- and my new friends- was open, unguarded. But so was the way to Pikachu and the others. In fact, now that I thought about it, that was probably what the twins were going to offer me- all my Pokemon back. In return for something. In my current predicament, probably something to do with the population of the world at large. But then they could ask for almost anything in return...

That was when I noticed the trapdoor. It would have been completely invisible to the naked eye in the poor lighting of the hut, but now that the roof was in pieces, it was really no trouble to spot it. I glanced furtively around, saw no immediate danger, and ran towards the door, somewhat clumsily- I was still used to the four-legged lope of an Arcanine. Upon reaching it, I found that the trap door had been left conveniently unlocked- but then, a padlock or some chains would have revealed it to the world, dark or not. There weren't any handles either, but a quick check showed that a small button, the same colour as the floor, was located near to the door. Sure enough, pressing it caused the trapdoor to drop with a creaking groan. The sound shook me up, but the twins seemed to still be engaged with the flyswatter, and they didn't come running. A thought occurred to me, and the elated feeling one gets with a nice thought pushed to the top of my mind. Suppose that the basement was where they were keeping my friends? I could be out of here with all of my team.

Before anything else could happen, I slipped down into the gaping hole. My heart was riding on hope, and if something bad happened, there might be no return.

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"Come on," said Emerald, still not believing his 'friend'. "We have an enemy to kill."

Eclipse spun around on the balls of his feet. "Actually, old buddy, it's just you." The following silence was thicker than treacle. "You'd better get going." Another silence.

"Oh. I see." The older clone gave a bitter chuckle. "You've thought this through."

"I have."

"I guess I'll be seeing you. In hell." His deep green eyes flared momentarily, and he laughed again. Then he was gone, the last vibrant sparks of his aura almost smouldering in the empty air. By that time the next day, Diamond would be trawling all of the planet, distraught, looking for any sign of her lover. She would find nothing, decided Eclipse, snatching a spark from the air and crushing it in his fist.

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	17. Enter Valhalla

**Targets**

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"What the hell are _you_ supposed to be?" I blurted, reeling backwards and towards the trapdoor.

The leering face loomed closer. "Is the fleshbag asking Karakakti something?" a voice chittered shrilly. "Oh, it is, it is," replied a similar, but somehow different voice.

My hands reached up for the door- and were grasped around the wrists by sharp claws. "Ah!"

"The fleshbag is surprised! Oh, how laughable, eh, Karakakti?"

"Indeed, Karakakti, indeed." The two voices again, similar but distinct. The face wasn't moving from it's position five metres from my head, and I couldn't say I was all too displeased. Any closer and I'd be breathing in floating smile. The face was vaguely familiar to me. No nose, red eyes perpetually slanted to where the nose should have been, and a bizarre grin... I chuckled to myself. Nothing but a Gengar, or perhaps two. Funny that they-

A small whimper caught my attention, and my head snapped round so quickly I felt a sharp gust of wind. There was no light in this basement or cellar or whatever it was, but my eyes were adjusting swiftly. As the darkness seemed to fall away, my eyes fell on a disturbing sight. A bedraggled figure was crouching in the far corner, trembling slightly. It was pale white, and clumps of something orangey-red covered one end of it. And when I finally realised what it was, I didn't want to believe my eyes.

There was a little kid locked in a basement with a pair of Gengar.

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"So... would any one of you sad excuses for monsters like to tell me just _how_ the Regirock got stuck on 'eliminate bipeds'?" snarled the Captain, palm crackling with shadowy energy.

"An... accident?" suggested Oracle meekly.

Everyone nodded quickly to affirm his claim. Too quickly. "You know, I didn't even know we had the right Stone in the first place..." Eclipse's head swiveled sharply to pinpoint the muttering culprit. His seething glare was even worse with a black eye.

"Ah, Guile." The Arbok stiffened, obviously not having expected the Captain to have known his name. "I understand that you were among the first enlisted to help Luna secure the Stone from the late Mr. Whatsisname?"

"Mr. Fulham," corrected Oracle in a whisper.

"Do you know how he died?" continued Eclipse, pointedly ignoring the Lucario. When everyone shook his head, he went on. "He took a Thunderbolt to the chest, at just the right level for it to be diagnosed as a heart attack. Funny how Amp managed to succeed in the same way that you intended to, but _after_ you failed. I mean, a snake and an electric sheep, which one'll kill the aristocratic company owner first?"

Wisely, the purple snake remained silent under this verbal barrage. He knew that his Captain was currently frustrated not only with the Regirock, but with his Salbier agents' slow progress south. Guile wasn't even sure of the agents' species, let alone the number of them, but according to Luna they had already broke through thousands of Arctic Pokemon and retrieved the Regi from it's prison. Now all that remained was the Steel Golem, although no moves had been made to find it as far as Guile knew. And he knew a lot, as Eclipse full well knew.

"Anyway, I want you three to stay in the underground surveillance chamber, and wait for Luna's signal. Then you can have a psychic teleport you guys to Machinima and attack from the inside. You got it?" He glanced at Mode- or rather, the holographic translation of Mode- who nodded. "Try to recruit within the city. Any criminals, Pokemon or otherwise, and if anyone refuses to join, kill them." Mode winced visibly at that, although neither of his companions showed any reaction. "The vast abundancy of concrete and other inflammable stuff in the city makes an effective blanket fire unlikely to work, so we're relying on Earthquakes and Digging to topple the buildings. Make sure you're at the base when the tremors reach, I dunno, the centre of the city. And try to screw any guards up. I'll have Stryke's crew take care of any ice-types, but take down as many trained Pokemon as you can. And knocking out ghosts would help too, considering."

"Anything else, O great leader?" asked Oracle sarcastically.

"Report any visions you get, O lowly lackey."

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"Hey! Let go of me!" The iron grip of Karakakti's hands continued to crush my bones, and the kid was still shivering in its corner, their pale skin white against the inky blackness of the basement.

"Captain! CAPTAIN!" The voices cried in shrill unison, and for the second time in what felt like a day, my eardrums threatened to burst. "Intruder! INTRUDER!" Every second word seemed ethreal and disconnected, and while they seemed louder, I felt a small relief in my ears both times. The Gengar must have been using telepathy, if only half of the time. And if it could call with its mind, then who knew what else it could use its mind for?

"Don't worry, fledgeling. Gengar can only skim your thoughts- at best." Nick was suddenly back, looming out of the darkness- much like Karakakti One did- and with a bruised eye. "But you should worry more about what _I_ can do."

"Who's that kid?" I asked, gesturing to the pathetic lump behind me.

"Ah. So, you've met our little guest. Karakakti has been looking after her for a little while now. Maybe since we attacked that- I don't know- highly flammable city of hers?"

I couldn't believe this guy. He imprisons a little girl with a purple cloud of poison vapour, burns down her home, probably starves or tortures her, and then has the gall to mock her home? Suddenly punching his face in and taking my things and leaving didn't seem such a bad idea.

"Except that I'm far too powerful to overpower single-handedly, or even with your five Defender friends. And now that you know about little Amy here, I suppose you can't abandon her either, right?"

"Must suck to be you, Ash. I really _hate_ getting my mind read." Karakakti glided away from me to intercept the new voice. My arms were free, and I had a feeling that that was what the voice had planned for.

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The city walls reflected the sun's light in all directions, blinding attackers. Naturally, Knight and his elite wrecking crew of dragons had come prepared, and with their shades filtering the white light from their sight, the group of seventy left their allies at the fair distance of sixteen kilometres from the city. Knowing that they would be poorly resisted, if at all, they bore down upon the guardhouses like death incarnate.

At that instant, Stryke called the fatal command to his crew, and fighters flooded from the ship onto the dock, trampling surprised workers underfoot. Luna, safe in her converted office, transmitted the signal to the small island on the other side of the planet, down in Sevii. Sol and Ken, in the floating ship, steered it to park just over the Skyreach Tower, Apocalypse's main radio broadcast tower. People in the city were starting to notice a strange palpitation in the streets, and if anyone had bothered to go into a basement, they would have noticed a sizable Garchomp tunneling around underground, wrecking foundations and water pipes, and attempting to topple something. The atmosphere was rapidly morphing from a lazy summer lunchtime to something a bit more... sinister.

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The Weavile rushed at me, sensing a weakness to ice. Either that, or they were taking down the big turtle with healing powers first. A Brick Break from Forward snapped one of the demonic ice-types in half, and orbs of ghostly flame zoomed from Revert's yellow scarf-things, setting several Weaviles on fire. The frost ninjas were _not_ our problem. The horde of Spiritomb definitely was. Not many attacks of Forward's would deal damage to the purple discs of gas, and while the rest of us could harm the ghosts, it would take some time to thin the horde, and by the time we'd gotten rid of them, the Weaviles would have overrun us.

"Forward! Take out the Weavile!" I looked sharply at the two girls. "Anyone here know Odour Sleuth?"

"How will that help?" asked the Glaceon, cynical.

"It forces ghosts to be trapped in tangible form, and so we shall be able to exploit the dark-type weakness to fighting moves that ghosts frequently negate," answered Revert, chucking another fireball at a Spiritomb. "Also, we may be able to track the enemies' course from their base."

"Good enough for me," grinned May toothily. A dull flash of white light later, and the ghosts blinked in confusion. I nodded, satisfied, when I saw that the Spiritomb's new consistency meant that no-one could see through them. A kick and several punches later, and the solidified ghosts were blown away from us like leaves in an autumn gust. Or a late summer typhoon, actually. The Weavile- the remaining ones, at any rate- noticed their allies' swift defeat and decided that now would be a good time to turn around and run. Quickly.

"Let's break camp," said Revert. "We don't know where the next attack will come from, and as long as we stay here we're in danger from attacks."

"Amen to that," May muttered in a quiet aside.

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There was a mountain, insurmountable by those without the power of flight. It was close enough to the sun that only the ones who drew resisted it's massive power could ever be truly safe at the summit. It was a mountain of legend. And yet somehow, I was here. I'd lived my entire life hoping to reach the volcanic crater my kind was said to originate from, and here I was, with every other member of my great race. And I was bored. A stupid, human thing to be, but bored I was, undeniably and irrevocably. I almost missed cruising the skies above this sorry lump of rock and earth, watching out for the boy who I sometimes suspected was my son.

"Perhaps your time is not over yet. It happens." I was also surrounded by the supposedly great and wise Ho-oh species, all of whom believed that they were living in Valhalla as a reward for their just and heroically noble lives. "I once recall a man who..." It was a nice trick I'd learned back on Earth, switching off my hearing. It helped me shut out these windbags' long-winded tales of their time in Midgard, and I would even take a thousand journeys following the boy and his unlikely exploits regarding legends and clones, if my only other choice was this.

Something struck me. "If this is the mythical Valhalla..."

"Yes?" asked the others guardedly.

"Then could I get the hell- sorry, 'Valhalla'- out of here?"

The congregation of Ho-oh gasped in concert. It was really pretty funny. "Why would anyone wish for that terrible fate?"

"Oh, I don't know, I'm just... speaking hypothetically here. Yeah." One good point about Valhalla- the guys up here'll believe anything. "In theory, could someone leave Valhalla?"

"I assume... the magic can allow almost anything to occur... Yes."

"Wonderful. How do we do it again?"

At once, the commotion caused by my 'theory' subsided, and a Ho-oh detached from the crowd, trailing the spectrum that the prismatic feathers of a Ho-oh create. A flash of fire spun around the hall, and a Growlithe burst into being, wedged in between two of the phoenixes. "Great."

And then I was gone.

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Karakakti lurched from the shadows, clutching a struggling huddle of white and blue in his (their) shadowy claws. I was already moving, a blur of orange and black, hurtling towards to the girl trembling in her corner of the basement, intending to grab her, free the guy who'd distracted my adversaries, and run. I wasn't expecting to be thrown through the ceiling by a burst of strange energy, then cleaved through the wall of the hut outside. When I struggled to my feet, bruised and bleeding, Nick was already in front of me.

"It's a move I invented. Call it Separation or Disconnection," smirked the boy, "'cause that's exactly what it does." A beam of the same energy lanced through the air, striking a tree five or six metres away from me. The poor shrub exploded violently, and a flying tree branch collided with my midriff, tossing me halfway back to the shack. A few more cuts opened.

"I haven't tested it on a living creature yet. If you hadn't intervened, maybe I would have used it on little Amy. But now I think it would be best to keep her alive. Fan the hope, yes?"

"Bastard," I gasped, rapidly returning to human form.

"I am, aren't I?" A wicked grin stole onto his face. "But maybe this fortune-teller can be my new test subject." Behind him, Karakakti rose from the floor, dragging an unconscious man behind him (them). Even in broad daylight, I couldn't see how many Gengar there really were. Which would suck when I made a break for the Obelisk, less than five or six hundred metres away from me. I shifted my attention to the fallen man. He didn't seem to be injured too badly, and only had an ugly purple bruise on his head to show how he'd been incapacitated.

"He's called Benito Grisilini Junior , grandson of the late Benito Grisilini Senior and the even later Madam Francis Grisilini. His parents died in some Deoxys attack when he was four and he moved in with his grandparents, travelling and telling fortunes with playing cards and tea leaves. When they popped it after encountering a mysterious stranger on a roadside, he found a diary in the car boot. It belonged to Amy, who did not have a last name. She was an orphan, and..." He glanced quizzically at the ghost next to him. "And apparently learned how to read with a Chatot called Arm. She somehow managed to blunder from the streets of Arahaz to the docks of Greengrove, and was captured by incendiary experts in the fire. She was locked, along with other prisoners, within the bowels of this island, with Karakakti as their warden, and is the only survivor from certain... experiments. How her diary migrated from here to a car halfway between Salbier and Hyrokk is anyone's guess, and now I have exceeded the word limit for explaining vague and undefined things in such a way that they are still vague and undefined. TV Tropes is really pretty useful, although I wouldn't like to meet the sad freaks who update it."

My eyes rolled, and I checked an imaginary watch. "Done yet?"

"Indeed."

"Let's get this over with."

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	18. Disconnection Works on People, Too

**Targets**

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Memory flitted through the desert sand, faster than any living creature in the galaxy. Not including the Spearow that he had befriended as his battle partner, that was now soaring over him, covering him from the air. The Obelisk was a mere four thousand and eighty-seven nautical miles from the nearest port. Seven thousand five hundred and sixty-nine kilometres, or four thousand seven hundred and three. Not very far away at all. He could have just teleported to the island that his enemies had conspired to hide from him, but Memory needed a few backup plans to be put in action. Blocking the port city Machinima from low-level teleports was only a one of the tricks up his metaphorical sleeve.

Also in place were powerful paralyser-rank satellites that would send a beam of concentrated electricity into the brains of any fifth-tier being within range, reducing their motor functions to breathing and possibly the excretion of waste. A small army of fighter drones were concealed in a disused warehouse, programmed to target any shapeshifters or beings with the Obelisk Touch, excluding Memory himself. There were also some low-powered quantum explosives buried underground in a two-mile (three point two kilometre) radius from the city centre, set to detonate if the battle moved outside the walls. Something that Memory had no intention of allowing to happen.

Allowing himself a low chuckle, he entered the city, surprising and surprised by a squad of humans and Pokemon on their daily patrol.

"East Guard, attack!" If Memory had been prepared for a completely random encounter with tenth-tier and ninth-tier creatures, maybe he would have provided more resistance. However, he had only been expecting to battle Defenders, and that was what he had prepared to defend against. The Hyper-fangs and Night Shades of the East Guard were hitting home hard.

"Freeze!" The entire guard ceased movement, as if frozen in time. It wasn't as drastic as that (they were dead) but they were just as immobile. Memory checked himself over, noted a gash in his forearm, and continued on his way to the warehouses, searching for the unique energy signal of his drones.

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"How were the patrols today," asked the Chief of Security in Machinima. "Or to put it more bluntly, what and who did we lose?" he added, seeing the pallid and gaunt face of his deputy.

"The whole East Guard, sir. Clue and me came across them not two minutes ago, sir."

"All of them?" CSM asked incredulously.

The Deputy nodded grimly. "The patholo-gists couldn't see what was wrong with 'em, sir, except that they were dead, of course."

"Anything else?"

"Aye. Sniffer found some blood that he couldn't recognise. We even 'ad a Luxray sample it. No clue what it was," said the Deputy. The Chief shook his head.

"These crazy Pokemon that were on the news really _are_ coming to kill us, aren't they?"

0

"Clue, what do you sense?" The Hypno sniffed the air curiously, then looked back at his trainer, the Deputy Chief of Security in Machinima.

"_One human mind. And an electric signal._" The Deputy nodded, and took out a Pokeball.

"Good work, Clue. Return!" A beam of red energy struck the yellow psionic, and it was sucked into the outstretched hand of the Deputy. He hooked it back onto his belt, and took another ball from his pocket. "Go, Sniffer!"

A Houndour flickered into being next to him, expression rapt and stern. "Do you smell any oil?"

The dog shook its black and red head. "Lithium?" Another head shake. "Metal?" The dog nodded and gave a small yip. "Good boy," the Deputy grinned. The two were next to the abandoned Warehouse Number Thirteen, where Clue and Sniffer had tracked the murderer of the East Guard. He tossed a dog treat into his partner's mouth, and the tracker gobbled it down greedily. If the pathologists were right, then whoever- or whatever- had killed the East Guard was definitely a force to be reckoned with. And so the Deputy had hand-picked a pool of powerful fighters from the best of his trainer days. Rose the Combusken, specialist in kickboxing and Solar Beams. Bite the Manetric, friend of lightning- and light- based attacks, and Shed the Ninjask, user of Night Slash and Double Team. To round off the formidable ensemble, he had Ninj the Shedinja, immune to many kinds of damage. Including, the Deputy hoped, whatever move that the murderer had used to take out the East Guard. He just hoped that he had enough.

"Okay, guys. This murderer will be a hard battle, but remember that there's five of us and only one of him!" said the Deputy, attempting to rally his team. _Unless the murderer has a team of six_, the bitter, spiteful part of his brain thought. "Let's go, team!"

"NO. THERE. WILL. BE. NO. GOING." A massive pillar of ice extended from a crater in the floor of the warehouse, its top sharpened to a spearlike point. Next to it, a Charizard swooped from the spacious rafters. It growled something to Rose, who gestured at the Deputy.

"Hey, I can't understand you guys!"

"THE. ON. VOY. HAS. TOLD. ME. TO. TELL. YOU. THAT. YOU. CAN. UN. DER. STAND. ME." The Deputy, although confused as to where the voice came from, understood that much at least. He was still a little unsure of who to address.

"How did you get here?" he asked, deciding on the Charizard. At least had a face. He growled something at the pillar and the ground rumbled beneath our feet, as if in reply.

"WE. TEL. E. PORT. ED. HERE. FIF. TEEN. AND. ZEE. RO. POINT. TWO. SIX. FIVE. SEC. ONDS. A. GO." A pause. "POINT. SEV. EN. SEC. ONDS. A. GO."

The Deputy nodded in understanding. At least that explained why Sniffer or Clue hadn't noticed them before. There _was_ still the mystery of how one teleported a massive block of ice, or why anyone would bother to do so, but the Deputy decided that just then was not the time to be wondering what was going on. The Charizard alone seemed to be strong enough to take out both Bite and Rose, and the Deputy did _not_ want to think what the pillar was for.

"WE. BID. YOU. GOOD. BYE. AND. GOOD. DAY." The Charizard muttered something. "GOOD. DAY. AND. GOOD. BYE." Then they vanished, leaving a slush-filled crater and some unidentifiable piles of half-melted, half-frozen junk in their wake.

"Let's never come here again."

0

The man streaked across the rolling waves, the Spearow perched on his head. If it had been anyone else tearing through waves at the speed of light, they might have paused to enjoy the sights, maybe laughed as they literally passed through boats and islands. Naturally, Memory had had a slight problem with mirth ever since his birth, and as such was regarding the endlessly-shifting horizon with a cool boredom. In less than a nanosecond, he was at the shore of the island, the sound of trees exploding and Karakakti's shrill laughter echoing down to him. He immediately detected a fifth-tier presence, and in quick succession an eighth-tier and two seventh-tiers and... something else. Outside of the tiers completely, not any stronger than the first three tiers but with the potential to become so much more... It had to be destroyed. The Council would understand, once provided with the appropriate recordings of the event. He leaped up onto the hill where a wiry boy with purple eyes- the source of the strange energy- hurled shimmering bolts of nothingness at trees, and watched them explode over a second, terrified boy. Memory felt an immediate familiarity with the second boy, but this was only to be expected. He had been called in to destroy the same boy countless times, always to prevent the unison of the Defenders. This time would be no different. He would obliterate the Chosen One, and then spend the rest of his days awaiting the sighting of the Chosen One once again. How wrong he was.

0

Why is it that whenever I think that it just _couldn't_ get worse, the universe goes and pulls something worse out of it's cosmic ass? First getting teleported all over the place, having the misfortune to end up in a desert, the even greater misfortune of the city I had found exploding into flames, and then getting sucked into a magical world along with professional sadists and a bunch of prehistoric monsters. Then getting forcibly taken from it by said professional sadists, and in danger of being crushed by tree branches as an unconscious man held by a Gengar is threatened with death or something that could be even worse. Now a weird man with a Spearow on his head has leaped out of nowhere with talk about Defenders and destruction, and a weird-looking firearm in his palm. It's gotten to the point that I don't even get what's going on anymore. At least the exploding trees were gone now.

"Stop! I, too, am a foe of this evil beast!" cried the man, his Spearow a bloody mess of feathers and flesh laying limply on the floor. Nick was wearing an expression of pure hatred on his face, the pitiful scars on his cheeks only serving to exemplify his anger. The weird man was pointing at me, drawing attention to my slow transformation into an Arcanine. On the sidelines, Karakakti giggled insanely, clutching closely to it the still forms of Benito and Amy like grotesque dolls. Next to them, the firearm flashed uselessly. Being the crazy monster that he was, Nick ignored the man's feeble gesture in my direction and sent a beam of Disconnection energy searing through the poor guy's head. After a second of confused blinking on everyone's part- including Karakakti- the man laughed out loud.

"Ha! Your pi-" He didn't get any further. Blood pumped from an injury that suddenly appeared in his head, and his skull suddenly blew apart, taking parts of his chest with it. A chunk of bone glanced off my own skull, opening a shallow cut, but I ignored it. I was too busy staring, appalled, at the fresh corpse that lay, quite literally, on Eclipse's front lawn.

The shapeshifter took one look at the headless body and shook his head. "That wasn't right. That could _not_ have been the agent."

"It wasn't." From the cliff that the first weird man with a Spearow had sprung from, another man with a Spearow appeared. "I am the agent Memory, dispatched to eliminate the Chosen One."

"Not going to happen," Nick snarled, catching the dead person's firearm that Karakakti had thrown towards him.

The man frowned. "How could you know which way the gun is truly pointing?" He received his answer in the form of a gun to the head, and slid to the floor without so much as a grunt.

"Now, let's get to other business," Eclipse grinned to me after the man, his Spearow and the gun had all been blown to pieces.

0

"DO. NOT. AT. TEMPT. ES. CAPE," the Regirock intoned, the seven yellow dots on it's face blinking in time with the telepathic voice. "I. HAVE. OR. DERS. TO. DES. TROY. THOSE. WHO. TRY. TO." Around the gigantic block of stone, flattened Yanmega and Kabutops showed just how powerful this thing was. Amy had fainted upon seeing the monolithic Pokemon, and Benito was still out cold. But even if they were awake, and if we tried to escape, I honestly doubted that we would get more than half a metre from the rocky golem.

At the moment, nothing much was happening. Nicholas had left, placing the Regirock in charge of us, and upon his departure the island had become a hive of activity. Machoke and Machamp were dragging massive steel beams and wooden poles around, which were slotted together by psychics. A group of weird blue things that seemed to be wearing judo robes were carrying a strange machine around, following a gaggle of Medicham as they checked on the rapidly growing structure. A trapdoor in the side of the hill slid open, and several Ampharos and Flaafy spilled out from it. One of the Ampharos seemed to be in charge of the whole operation, and whenever he went near us I felt a strange wave of commanding energy flowing from his body.

"What's happening?" I asked the Regirock.

"THEY. ARE. BUILD. ING. A. BASE. ON. THIS. EYE. LAND."

I chewed this over. "Why?"

"THEY. WISH. TO. LO. CATE. A. KEY."

"What kind of key?"

The Regirock twisted slightly, as if shaking it's head. "I. CAN. NOT. TELL. YOU." Well, this didn't suck so much any more. I knew that the enemy was building some kind of fortress on the island, and that was a start. If I got back- when I got back- I could tell Forward and Revert about this, and we could storm in and blow it all up.

Some commotion made me look back to the slaving Pokemon. A boat had docked at the island, and a squadron of Crobat and Bronzong swooped down onto it. A few seconds later, a Lucario stepped from one of the Crobat's backs in front of me.

"_Please come with us_," it said. The telepathy was weak and crackly, but I remembered it from a previous confrontation. This was no low-level underling. This was the real deal, one hundred per cent battle material. On the boat, a Sceptile was picking it's teeth with a twig, next to a horribly familiar Swampert. "_So_. _We meet again_." The Lucario was speaking again, ignoring a screaming cry from the island. "_Last time, I had orders to capture you_. _Now, we have already captured you_."

"Not because of _you_, though."

"_Yeah_," admitted the Lucario, "_but you are powerful_."

A blue aura coated the boat, and it set off into the wind, against the current. Psychic, obviously. After a few minutes, the aura changed colour, becoming red. "_Propelling a boat is tiring_," said the Lucario as an explanation. After an hour of ceaseless travel, the boat came to a sudden halt. "_Ding-dong_. _End of the ride_." From some hidden lower decks, a flock of Crobat breezed out of the ship and towards a coastline. Dominating the view was a shimmery wall and several brightly-coloured boats docked at a similarly shining series of piers. The sun was just past it's zenith, slowly sinking behind the walls which I guessed belonged to the neighbours of Greengrove. If Nick was doing what I thought he was, then the neighbours were going to get a big and nasty surprise.

"_Worry not. He's giving the residents a chance to leave. Many will, although those that remain are unlikely to survive more than ten minutes._" Another telepathic voice, this one more steady by far, came onto the scene. Moments later, a Gardevoir floated onto the deck.

"Loo... nee?" I asked, struggling to recall her name.

Her eyes flared. "_Lu. Na._"

"_Don't worry_," said the Lucario confidentially. "_I make that mistake all the time_." The boat bucked madly at that, and the bipedal canine was thrown into the water.

"_I believe that we can leave now,_" said the Gardevior, as if nothing had happened. A gangplank extended from a smaller boat, a junk of some kind, that was bobbing up and down on the waves in synchronisation with the ship. I was pretty sure that it hadn't been there three minutes ago. "_It is a teleport-enabled watercraft. We use it to transport troops long distances, or to places that would be hard to get to in other ways. For example, the centre of a skyscraper belonging to an oil-drilling firm._"

I took the hint and walked slowly down the piece of metal scraping against the side of our ship. "Right."

The junk was a mean, unimpressive thing, made out of battered and, in some places, twisted metal. Out of the main cabin jutted a spluttering smokestack, and several sooty cannons lay among coils of rope and chains. The waters beneath it churned and rolled, obviously disrupted by some kind of propeller. A weary Ninetales and a scarred Raticate stood guard on the boat, the Raticate polishing cannonballs with a scruffy rag. Through a window in the cabin I saw a second Raticate, this one less scarred but lacking half of it's whiskers, clutching a steering wheel in it's biting claws. When I got on board and hesitantly entered the cabin, I was shocked by the innate _technology_ the junk boasted. Beside the steering wheel, several glowing dots flickered and changed colour, while a dashboard covered in green and blue buttons gave a steady hum. A radio sat on a stainless steel table, fixed to the metal with screws, and at the back of the cabin, a stained fridge lay on it's side. Wires ran along the walls and ceiling, converging at a point behind the fridge.

"_The teleporter,_" explained Luna. "_Adapted from a common refrigerator._"

I nodded, feigning interest as I scoured the interior of the cabin with my eyes, looking for a way belowdecks. But if there was a secret trapdoor, it was hidden under the piles of clutter and maps, as well as a few _Agatha Christie_ books. A computer monitor hung next to the fridge, now that I looked, displaying spiky lines and pie charts. I'm no computer genius, but I was sure that something was wrong with the monitor. It was glowing, alright, but the source of light seemed filtered, as if it was coming from behind a sheet of paper. I gave the wall it was sitting on a quick once-over. It seemed I had found the door.

0

**Ooh, a semi-cliffhanger. Don't worry, they still get to teleport with a boat. Into a building. That belongs to an oil-drilling firm. While dragons throw themselves at reflective walls and three separate bands of shapeshifters attempt to accomplish their respective goals.**

**Don't forget to review, or Amp will kill us all.**


	19. Big Bads and Dragons

**Targets**

**Now we follow the ever-so-intelligent Ruby as he does what he does best. Breaking things.**

0

"We have clearance!" said Topaz as she clicked her mouse.

The thug grinned stupidly and flexed his fingers. "Does that mean that we can go in?"

"Yes, Ruby," she sighed, tossing a pair of shades at her thick 'cousin'. "Keep those on until we start beating people up. And on _my_ command."

No-one seemed to notice anything strange about the massive man and the leaner, shorter woman as they left the inn they had been staying at while Mode cracked codes and demolished firewalls. Then again, the people of Mountainside were trying to avoid being spotted and assaulted by their newest tyrannical regime. And that meant trying to ignore everything at all costs- when people were beaten every few hours by law enforcers, a suspicious couple was tame in comparison. This Rocket administration was the key to it's own demise.

At an ugly concrete wall, topped by barbed wire and sensors at regular intervals, the two stopped. Attempting to act innocuous, Topaz approached a thick chain-link fence, where two armed men stood guard, smoking cigarettes. One was short and stocky, half of his face concealed by an army-issue helmet. The second man was taller, but just as wide, and a tuft of brown hair was attached to his head. Both were covered in tattoos, and wore green and brown combat fatigues. Grubby Pokeballs hung from their belts.

"Halt!" cried the taller one as Topaz drew closer. "Who goes there!"

"I'm Serena Topaz, with Sinnoh News special. May I please enter this building?"

"I don't see no cam'ras," muttered the short one, "she mus' be pullin' our legs."

'Serena' tutted falsely. "Now, why should we go around hauling those primitive lumps of steel and aluminium when we have a perfectly light substitute right here?" She gestured grandly at Ruby, who took the cue and threw two sledgehammer fists at the guards. Before the guards hit the floor, Topaz had taken their guns and Pokemon. "I think I'll keep these. They'll come in useful."

0

"Watch out down at the east gate, Hale. Ugly One and Ugly Two are out cold," said Akira of Team Rocket Mission Control, his voice booming into a tank holding facility, and into the ears of the armed men and women supposed to be guarding it. The gigantic weapons hung menacingly in the air, kept from crushing the patrol by fifty-centimetre thick chains.

"Roger," confirmed Lieutenant Hale, beckoning furiously for his group to fan out and surround a small, steel-lined doorway, where the two invaders were supposed be in less than half a minute. "Stay out of the big one's range, and fire at my command!" The door slowly ground open, the patrol still mulling around in chaos. "Fire!" The first few shots ricocheted off steel walls and barely missed taking off a soldier's ear. If only they'd been given Pokemon, Hale grumbled internally. Pokemon could take care of a thug and a weird girl. Sudden commotion! A scream sounded, and then a wet thud.

"Cease fire!" cried the Lieutenant, unnecessarily. The whole patrol had ceased to fire when they realised that someone had been hit. Hired by the Rockets they may have been, but many had no gun licenses or other qualifications and had been cajoled into it by relatively high pay and living quarters. They were still human. On the floor lay a moaning man, face drawn and drained of blood. He was clutching his stomach, face twisted, and blood was starting to pool at his midriff. In a reverie of horrified fascination, the men stared at their dying comrade, all but forgetting the reason for his imminent death.

"Back off, back off," muttered Hale. "Give him space to breathe." The crowd immediately complied, none of them noticing the glare of red in the doorway, or the woman crouching behind a seven-foot tall insect covered in maroon steel. They didn't react when a dull flash of silvery light arced over them, snapping chains that supported extremely heavy tanks. In fact, they only noticed what was happening when the fallen man inhaled deeply and said two shaky, breathless words: "Heads... up."

0

A musty church, deserted except for two girls, stood in the quiet suburban streets of South Machinima. One of the girls was hovering three or four centimetres from the seat of her chair, and the other girl was standing. They were both lean and tough-looking, the kind that you would expect to be hardcore trainers. "Ruby and Top are in?" probed Nicole, twirling an empty Pokeball on her index finger. A tourniquet was tightly wrapped on one of her upper arms, and a band-aid was clumsily slapped onto her back.

Sapphire looked up from her meditation. "Sure."

Had anyone else been watching from, say, a crack in the ceiling, they would have wondered what Nicole was doing when she stuck an elbow out and put the hand it was connected to on her hip. Then her brother materialised beside her, his arm perfectly linked with hers. "Let's go."

Outside of the church, under the shade of ancient rowan trees, no-one would have thought that a young couple wearing sunglasses was suspicious. They were on the lookout for dangerous men with flamethrowers, and even more dangerous Pokemon. Without attracting any attention, the two most dangerous criminals of the Apocalypse Archipelago seamlessly attached themselves to the end of a bus queue. Plan Ostentatious was in action.

A double-decker bus turned the corner, and slowed down, ready to brake at the stop. As it slid to halt, Nicole left the line, pretending to throw something away. The door creaked open, and the people filed into the vehicle. After dropping a couple of coins into the till, Nicholas selected a seat just behind the driver's, and waited in silence.

0

"Heatwave!" The blast of fire did nothing to stop the ghostly creature, and it struck again, slamming a purple fist into the side of the Torkoal's head. Darting away, the Sableye avoided a Signal Beam from a Butterfree that was struggling to stay airborne, and ignored the futile swipe of a Machamp as it turned intangible. The trainer of the three losing Pokemon snarled in frustration, and then commanded his Torkoal to use another Heatwave. As before, the attack washed harmlessly over the retreating figure, but this time, something even worse than nothing happened. The Sabeleye's back started bubbling grotesquely, and it's claws morphed into massive, green fists. Armour plating erupted all over the creature's body, and pushed outward, creating the illusion of growth. But as a half-formed foot the size of his Torkoal slammed onto the injured Butterfree, crushing it, the trainer realised that this was no illusion. Outraged, his two other Pokemon looked towards him for orders.

Thinking quickly, the trainer tried to recall what type a Tyranitar was. Rock or steel, by the look of the armour, he figured. "Machamp, Hammer Arm!" The attack was incredibly ferocious, sending the earthy skin of the Tyranitar rippling crazily, but the tank-like creature paid no heed to the punch, except to tread on the Machamp as well. However, it underestimated the strength of the Superpower Pokemon, and was hurled backwards into the steel wall with tremendous force. The metal screeched and buckled with the impact, but ultimately held, albeit dented severely. When the Rock-type jumped back onto it's feet, a few of it's rocky back spines were left in the wall, making it seem somewhat diminished. If anyone in the room had thought that, however, they were soon to be proven wrong.

With a gargantuan roar, the monster tore across the room, snapping off a length of thick steel beam as it did so. Using it's improvised weapon as a club, it slammed the bar down on the fighter, and the shockwaves threw the nearby trainer off his feet. When he scrambled back to his legs a moment later, the Machamp was no more. Blood tattooed the floor in a radius around the flattened Pokemon, and a coat of the red liquid clung to the steel bar, now bent almost at a right angle, and sunk deep into the earthy armour of the Tyranitar's claws. Disregarding it, the powerful creature turned to the Torkoal, which was now literally breathing fire in unleaded fury.

"Kill it!" roared the trainer, now suitably incensed by the display of malevolence. Despite the clear difference in level and ability, the turtle complied with a superheated wave of flame, managing to blacken the skin on one of the Tyranitar's legs into a brittle crust. A _glop _sound issued from deep within the creature's bones, and suddenly, fresh skin bloomed from an invisible crack in the armour, smoothing over the congealed soil. In a matter of seconds, the wound was completely swallowed up by new skin. The trainer and his Pokemon only had another second to blink in complete disbelief, before chunks of the Tyranitar's back sailed through the air, hurled by the reptilian beast's formidable arms, and smashed into the two of them. The Torkoal retreated into his shell, surviving the hit, but his trainer... didn't.

The charred, smoking, shell began to spin rapidly, sending lumps of muddy green flying around the hangar. A few blobs smacked into the Tyranitar, but were ignored as the saurian creature smashed a rocky claw into the ground, and a massive crevasse wound its way towards the fiery tortoise. As the shell clattered wildly, unaware of the impending doom facing it, a stocky, looming man walked through the same door that the Tyranitar/Sableye had entered through, and whispered something to the massive lizard.

"I bag the tank on the left."

0

The bus driver slammed his foot on the brakes, simultaneously jerking the steering wheel left with both of his hands. Veering madly, the machine managed to take out some ornamental trees on a pavement, and the expensive front gate of an even more expensive house. Just as the driver launched into a torrent of abuse and curses directed at the stupid girl who had run out onto the road just as the bus had gone over twenty miles an hour, a fist directed at the base of his neck knocked him clean through the window. The quiet, angry, murmuring and muttering from the passengers subsided with the sound of shattering glass, and a stunned silence seemed to stretch out for eternity. Then the boy who had punched out the bus driver leaped from the seat right behind the driver's, and pulled out a couple of pilfered Pokeballs from his shorts.

"You have three or four minutes to get off this bus. Two, if you're slow enough," he smiled pleasantly, the incessant tapping of his fingers on the spheres providing background noise to replace the lost conversation. Like Stantler caught in a headlight, the assorted bus patrons continued to stare mindlessly at the hijacker, until even _he_ was slightly unsettled. His index finger on his right hand found the expansion button on one of the balls, and with a quiet _schloop_ sound, it swelled. Twenty-something people chose that moment to scream and bolt. The door, still firmly shut, could not withstand the tidal wave of panicking humans crushing against it, and collapsed outward, to get trampled by the people that had displaced it. As the last of the terrified people scrambled from the somewhat-damaged bus, the air around the boy blurred with strange energy, and a girl who looked strangely similar to him popped into existence right next to him.

"Why did we even _want_ a surplus of buses in the first place?"

"So that hijacking one would be relatively simple."

The girl considered this for a moment. "Wasn't it already simple enough?"

Before her brother could answer her perfectly valid question, a random kid vaulted out of a random shop and shouted, "Stop! Thief!" A Persian leaped out from the curio shop beside him, and hissed in accompaniment. Nicholas frowned confusedly, trying to remember when he had ever stolen anything from anybody (and gotten caught in the act). And then he remembered the bus, and the chaotic muddle of screaming people that had exited it. Probably the guy had noticed this development in events around the shop, and decided to come calling.

0

Just when I decided to open the concealed door, the whole room rippled wildly, fridge and all. A weird sound, like a thousand walls exploding into shattered bricks, flooded my ears, and the room rocked as if it were on turbulent waters. I fell to the floor, feeling as if my head was going to explode, and clamped my hands over my ears. The sound instantly subsided, and I timidly peered upwards, trying to find the source of the noise.

"_Get up, you huge lug. We're here_." A telepathic voice drifted into my thoughts, and I recognised it as Loony's. "_Lu. Na_."

Mustering my dignity, I drew myself to my full height, removed my hands from my ears, and calmly strolled out of the wire-filled room.

On deck, a bizarre sight greeted me. The ropes and cannons were now lost amid a flurry of settling sheets of paper, covered in tiny letters and numbers. On the left-hand side of the junk, a wooden desk sat with an odd slant, one end of it crushed by the hull. An electric lamp, which I supposed had belonged to the desk, lay on the floor a few metres from the intact half of the desk, the lightbulb shattered. The back end of the boat had apparently materialised inside a trophy cupboard, and flattened pieces of gold and varnished wood littered the floor around the obliterated piece of furniture. A couple of fountain pens, leaking ink onto the carpet, were perched on the damaged top of the cupboard, the nibs hanging just off the edge. Two massive french windows, miraculously undamaged except for a spatter of ink and a minuscule spiderweb fissure where the tip of the prow was resting on it, completed the scene of chaos. I was surprised to see that there were no fainted women lying about.

The Gardevoir frowned suddenly, and seemed to say something silently. I thought for a few seconds, and then it clicked. She was probably having a psychic conversation with someone. Someone far away, I figured, when the windows swung open by themselves and she turned to the Raticate, gesturing at me and the Ninetales. The Raticate nodded a few times, and Luna turned away from it, to the open window.

"_Look_." The single directive was aimed at me, and I twisted my head to see what she was gazing at. It wasn't pretty. A squad of dragon-types was in the distance, bearing down upon the city at speed. Beneath them, Mamoswine and Ariados marched, keeping pace with the air-based monsters. Behind me, another window opened, and again she told me to look. At the very end of the harbour, bobbing on the waves next to a decrepit shack, a boat loaded with fighters hung like an oppressive shadow in the sunlight. It was clear that the fighters were going to take out any ice-types in the city, quashing effective resistance. "_I shall leave now. If you try to escape, we have permission to put you into a coma_." I nodded, sure that I could take on an underfed Raticate and a lean Ninetales.

0

The doors clanged open, and out stepped the abomination. Created from a single strand of Mew's hair, the creature had been spliced with DNA from many different sources, some innocuous, like Eevee, and others more dangerous. Calling upon the blood of one of these dangerous Pokemon, the abomination raised a hand, and everything nearby... exploded. Chemical flasks, desks, secure titanium safes, it all vanished in a split second. The air, on fire, rolled out from the creature, as if afraid of contamination, and smothered the scientists working on experiments and chemical formulae. Test tubes splintered in the burning heat, and smooth plastic cracked and peeled. Chromium-plated walls slowly melted into nothingness, and the bullets fired from one panicked guard's gun turned into slush as it sailed through the air. The fire, now too big for the room to contain, hungrily leaped into the doorway, vaporising the doorway with a sizzling touch. It raced down the hallway, burning holes in corridor walls, and completely engulfing a man carrying a clipboard as he made his daily rounds. A whisper of flame found a window, and with a tremendous leap, threw itself across the chasm between two blocks. This new fire, too, spread uncontrollably, seizing everything as fuel, melting anything that couldn't be burned into a puddle of thick liquid.

And so the third of Mew's clones left his prison, in his wake an astronomical plume of smoke and searing inferno.

"Ostentatious," muttered a scientist.

"What do you mean?" asked his colleague.

The man turned his gaunt face to the other one. "The first one was overtly aggressive, attempting to kill everything."

"It _did_," said the second man.

"The second one," continued the scientist, "operated by stealth and stealth alone. It escaped without being noticed for almost a week."

"Sloppy guardwork," said the second man.

"And this third one... It had control over most of the elements. It could have used a perception screen to silently slaughter the guards and walk through the front door! But it chose to blow everything up in a bonfire that could be seen for miles and miles. This one is dangerous."

"They all are," quipped the second scientist.

"It's not afraid to show the world just how powerful it is, and don't think that those flames were just a firework display- the only thing that survived the fire was a titanium post, five miles from the nearest prison facility. And even _that_ was burned."

"Interesting analysis, doctor," a sneering voice from above replied. "Maybe the fire was a little... what's the word you used? Ostentanious?"

"Osten... ostentatious."

"Yeah, yeah. Ostentatious. As I was saying..." A sudden movement behind them made them jerk their heads reflexively. When they saw the Gengar, clutching its stomach in the air, they had exactly a second to process the sight. And then two ghostly hands thrust themselves into the scientists' chests, and solidified.

"God, Eclipse," said Emerald. "Did you really need to release _that_ much blood?"

"Don't call me that!"

"Well?"

The younger clone sighed. "No, Sir Emerald," he said, voice dripping with sarcasm. Next to him, Karakakti giggled silently to his selves - all of them. The two bodies lay in a growing pool of their own blood, which was spattered in blobs and splodges in all directions, some of the smaller puddles fusing as they spread. Both of Nick's hands were covered in blood, and a limp strip of flesh was clenched in one of his fists.

0

**The next chapter is from another character's viewpoint... you may find it hard to wrap your head around. I know I did. Still do, in fact.**


End file.
